


[Complete] Rotting Wood

by MeltyMetroid



Series: Ribbonissa Shorts [4]
Category: ARMS (Video Game)
Genre: Halloween, Horror, filled with headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-01-16 09:09:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 60,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21268559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeltyMetroid/pseuds/MeltyMetroid
Summary: An unexpected detour strands Min Min, Ninjara, Mechanica, Misango, Springtron, and Dr. Coyle at a strange town hiding a horrifying secret.This is an honest attempt at creating a tense and unsettling horror-genre ARMS fic.





	1. As Luck Would Have It

**Author's Note:**

> This is an honest attempt at creating a tense and unsettling horror-genre ARMS fic. If you’d prefer something more fun and lighthearted, check out my Halloween fic for the previous year: ‘Snatched by the Seekies’.
> 
> This fic is written as a standalone story that is not canonical to my other ARMS fics, though it uses a lot of the same characterizations and world building.
> 
> Fic contains swearing and gruesome imagery, though implemented in moderation.

_ Snap. _

She had made a fatal mistake. This was it, wasn’t it? This was the end. This is how she’d die, despite  _ everything _ she had done to stop it. Every near miss and close shave, every moment that it seemed the tides would turn in her favour... She had fought so hard, but it had all amounted to  _ nothing _ : she was about to die here and now, and she was utterly powerless to stop it.

Her head began to ache with pained regrets. Perhaps, if only she’d slipped the other way, or waited in place just a  _ moment _ longer - long enough to have missed that  _ flash _ \- then maybe she’d still have had a fighting chance. Maybe she’d have had some way to turn this around, or some way to scrape past and get her bearings, if only for a moment. And maybe that’d have made a difference. All the difference in the world, even.

...But no. The camera flash had splattered out like the flash of a heavy gun, and it had caught her dead-center, like a dart hitting a bullseye with pin-point accuracy, or rather more like an alligator crushing down its upper jaw on an unsuspecting waterfowl mere seconds before it took flight. She was trapped, totally and perfectly, unable to move even an inch no matter how she struggled to.

And now, dead ahead, she could see her executioner approaching her. Her time was ticking down quickly. Her hourglass had reached its final grains.

How could  _ this _ be it? How could  _ this _ be the way she’d die? One mistake, that’s all it took. One  _ stupid _ mistake and now she wouldn’t even get to go out fighting, which - she figured - would at least have been some degree of  _ honourable _ , for whatever that’s worth. How  _ cruel. _

Her head spun around like a carnival ride, and though she pushed again in a desperate attempt to move, she knew deep down it was pointless. Because it had reached her now, just as she knew it would. It had stopped mere inches from where she’d found herself trapped in place, and it readied its sickeningly sharp claws in the air without hesitation.

There was a slim chance, she figured, that she could find herself surviving the first swing and still live to tell the tale. She’d be hurt beyond belief, yes - more so than she’d already been, even - but perhaps it could be enough to knock her out of this trance and get her back to fighting on her feet. _With some luck,_ there was still a chance she could survive that.

...But it was pointless to consider. She knew full well that a second swing would follow soon after - within the same second, most likely - and there was  _ no _ surviving that. Her injuries, as they were, were just too great. This was a done deal. Times up.  _ Game over _ .

She shut her eyes.

...And there it was. It had been the first swing after all, tearing through her like a child tearing through wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Chaotically and mercilessly, and without a second thought.

“...Ouch.” Min Min smirked slightly. “That’s unlucky!”

A deep exhale came from Mechanica’s nose as she opened her eyes again. “ _ So _ unfair.” She muttered, pouting, as she watched Ridley fly down to the Victory Screen and strike a dastardly pose. It was impossible to truly say what would have happened if Yuri Kozukata hadn’t caught her with the Camera Obscura, and she probably  _ would _ have lost regardless, but it still stunk to have lost her last stock like that.

“Better luck next time, kid!” Min Min snickered, setting down her Joy-Cons on the small side-table the Switch rested on. She leant back and stretched out, cracking her back in a way that felt just  _ so _ nice. It had been their  _ third _ 99-stock match, so she was understandably a little sore from sitting in place so long.

Mechanica sighed again, setting her Pro Controller down beside Min Min’s Joy-Cons. “I’m just used to playing on a bigger screen! I’m out of my element.. here.” She smiled slightly as she picked out some cereal from the small multi-pack selection box in front of her. “Plus the Switch moved when we hit a bump, so I had to play at a weird angle and that threw me off a bit.”

“Sounds like  _ excuses _ to me!” Min Min smirked, winking at her. She then stretched again and gave a hearty yawn, though it got abruptly cut short when the sliding of the coach jumped her out of it, almost making her swallow it like a fly.

...Mechanica carefully loosened her grip from both the table and chair she had suddenly clung to, and then - once she had determined things to be safe again - she began to pick up her scattered cereal pieces and put them back into the toppled box. “...That’s the third time we’ve hydroplaned...”

“It’s not hydroplaning, we’re just sliding around a bit.” Coyle  _ corrected _ from the front of the coach, her legs still crossed over the dashboard as she thumbed through the paper.

“ _ That’s what hydroplaning  _ ** _is_ ** _ ... _ ” Mechanica muttered back quietly under her breath.

“I wouldn’t worry ‘bout it.” Min Min shrugged. “Springtron’s got us covered. Right, dude?” She paused for a moment, as if awaiting a response. “...You ain’t asleep at the wheel, are you?!”

Springtron continued his motionless stare past the slipping windshield wipers, his hands firmly locked on ‘ten and two’. His utter lifelessness behind the steering wheel tended to  _ concern _ passengers riding along, but there was really no denying that he was the best driver around - he had years of experience downloaded right into his harddrive, after all.

“They called it  _ aqua _ planing in Ninja Driver’s Ed.” Ninjara commented from the back of the coach, where he lay sprawled out on a sofa holding a textbook above his face. “...That last one  _ did _ make me lose my place, though.” He continued to squint at the pages, trying to find back the word he had lost. It was something like ‘sneak’ or ‘shade’ - he was only half paying attention, admittedly.

“What do they call it in Misanga?” Min Min asked curiously, resting her head on her hands as she leaned her elbows on the table, her eyes darted over at Misango, who was sat on the other end of the coach. A stupid cheeky smile curved on her upper lip as she awaited a response, finding it just  _ so _ funny that she’d ask such a question to a man who likely only came to a concept of ‘automobiles’ within the past few years. And even funnier was how she  _ knew _ he wasn’t listening.

Mechanica could feel Coyle’s eyes rolling from behind her newspaper, and it took something in her not to do the same - she  _ did _ find it pretty funny, in truth. She just had a habit of copying those she was close to, she supposed. She instead decided to take Min Min’s bait and correct her. “...I don’t think Misango can hear you.” She pouted. “He’s meditating.”

Min Min squinted her eyes at him. “ _ Hm. _ ” Her ARM slowly unfurled and slipped over to where the Misangan chief sat cross-legged, his eyes shut tightly. She waved her hand up and down in front of his face, but he didn’t flinch for an instant. “Yeahhhh, he’s pretty outta it!”

“It’s crazy he can tune out all this  _ rain. _ ” Coyle muttered, pulling at her newspaper again to keep it taut. “I’ve been rereading these last few paragraphs for  _ hours _ now. Just can’t focus at all.” With a sigh, she brought the paper back down to her lap, scrunching it uncaringly, then put her ARMS behind her head as she leant back in an effort to get relaxed. “Maybe I need a nap.”

“Someone’s getting  _ old... _ ” Min Min snorted quietly under her breath. Mechanica, in turn, stifled a laugh - again, she had a bad habit of copying others. That was all!

Coyle gave a sharp glare to the corner of her eye, though she knew it’d go unseen. With a quiet sigh she then shut her eyelids and did her best to rest a bit.  _ Just four more hours, that’s all. _

Of course, it wasn’t just four more hours to their destination - that’d be  _ way _ too easy! No, this was four hours  _ to the half-way point, _ where they could spend the night in an inn and continue their trip the next morning. Sure, it was likely faster to just let Springtron keep driving while they slept in the coach, but the ARMS League were covering all expenses for this, and the mid-way hotel... Well, it was supposed to be  _ pretty _ nice.

“Mint-on-the-pillow nice, I hope!” Min Min grinned brightly, as their discussion had happened to change to that very topic. “We’ve been on the road for, what,  _ nine _ hours now? That’s way longer than any human should reasonably have to stay on a coach. The thought of a nice big bed with those  _ pillows  _ and  _ blankets _ ...  _ Mmmmnfff!~ _ ” Her eyes fluttered just thinking about it.

“I hope they have a pool! ...Do you think they’ll have a pool?” Mechanica added, perking up a bit. “It’s been  _ so  _ long since I last got to go swimming!”

“Most fancy hotels have a pool, so they’ve probably got one? I don’t see why they shouldn’t!” Min Min smiled back. “But do ya gotcha swim suit?”

“Mmhmm!” Mechanica grinned brightly. “I’ll need it for  _ Fontaine _ , obviously - but I always bring my swimsuit on these kinda trips.”

“Well save it for Fontaine, Mechy. You won’t get a chance to swim at the midpoint.” Coyle retorted from the front of the coach, decidedly  _ not _ asleep. “We gotta be back on the road first thing tomorrow.”

Mechanica pouted for a moment, then shrugged it off pretty quickly. “Well att least we’ll be there tomorrow!” She smiled again - a bright and hopefuly smile. “Do you think they’ll give us a tour when we arrive, o-or do we have to wait ‘til the next day?? Will the fountains be on? I  _ really _ hope they’ve got the big one working!”

_ Fontaine Plas _ \- or, as Max Brass tended to call it,  _ ‘Fountain Place’ _ \- was the ultimate destination of their trip: a brand new ARMS League arena set up in a  _ gorgeous _ valley of hot springs, waterfalls, and -cough-  _ artificial _ -cough- geysers. Six other ARMS League fighters had gone to tour the area earlier that year, back while the arena itself was still under construction, and had all come back with stories upon stories of its untold beauty.

“Lola said the water  _ sparkles _ when it catches the sun!” Mechanica grinned brightly. The others had already listened  _ for hours _ now to her babble on about how excited she was about going, but no one really had the heart to tell her to stop. “A-And Ribbons says the whole place smells like apples and pears! They put something in the water for that,  _ they really do!! _ ”

“They probably got a ton of those lil car air freshener thingies you get from gas stations down under the geysers.” Min Min teased. “That’s how they get the smell around!” For as much as she liked to joke, Min Min was actually really looking forward to seeing the place too. Especially after they’d assured her that the water wasn’t going to be ramen-soggyingly hot, but only a ‘pleasant and manageable warmth’.

“ _ Ha. Ha. _ ” Mechanica laughed fakely, rolling her eyes, that bright smile still on her lips. “But  _ really, _ it’s gonna be  _ so _ lovely!!” She sighed dreamily. “I wish we could get there today!! ...Any chance we can drive a bit faster?”

The coach sped up a touch, which caused Coyle to open one eye for a moment so she could deliver a quick half-glare to Springtron, who promptly slowed down again. “...We drive another  _ four  _ hours, we sleep through the night, then it’s another  _ eight _ hours and we’re there.” She shut her eyes again, fidgeting slightly for some form of comfort. “Something something  _ patience, _ something something  _ virtue.” _

Mechanica pouted, giving a small glare to the back of Coyle’s head, but stopped suddenly when Min Min’s hand fell from above and ruffled at her hair. “We’ll be there before ya know it, just you wait!~” She assured with a sisterly smile.

Mechanica blushed a little as a warm smile came on her face, feeling both reassured and excited again. “...I wish Ribbon Girl could have come with us.  _ She’d have loved it! _ ”

“She’s been! And she  _ did _ love it.” Min Min reminded her.

“Yeah, but it was still super unfinished when she went! She’s gonna miss out on all the new stuff!”

“She had gigs booked! S’not my fault she chose a career with schedule commitments. Shoulda picked a cushy job like me, where you’re you’re on boss and can do whatcha want.” She smirked, folding her ARMS. “...And,  _ on a similar note _ , never go into education that requires you to study in your free time.  _ That’s for losers. _ ”

Out of nowhere a thick poof of white smoke appeared about a foot away from Min Min, and out from it flew a thin green pencil, swinging around on its axis, which then suddenly collided with Min Min’s forehead and clonked off of it, before falling to the floor.

Min Min put a hand to her forehead, blinking. “...H-Hey!” It had taken her a moment to register what had happened, but the sight of ninja’s sly smirk from over her shoulder put the pieces together quite well. “Oh you are  _ so _ dead!” She snorted, pressing a hand to the table as she jumped over Mechanica and made a bee-line for the back of the coach, where she’d surely yank the ninja’s textbook from his hands for a game of Keep Away.

...But something had stopped her. She froze in place beside the table she had just left, right by Mechanica, as she turned to face the Misangan chief sat on the other side of the coach. She blinked twice. “...W-What?”  
  
“I said...” He began again slowly, sitting just as he had, but now fully awake and aware, only his head turned to face Min Min. “ _ Sit down and brace yourself. _ ” 

She blinked again, confused. The others had similarly turned their attention to Misango, unsure of what was going on. “...A-And  _ why _ do I need to brace myself?”

“The machine has a fault.” He returned simply, unwavering.

Min Min cocked her head a notch to the left, puzzle pieces twisting and turning slowly in her mind as she tried to figure out where they fit. “... _ What _ machine?” She blinked again. “Springtron? _ The coach? _ ” Her eyes widened suddenly. “...Wait,  _ the c- _ ”

A heavy bang reverberated through the coach, from the back toward the front, and Springtron slammed on the breaks. Everyone grabbed around quickly for some support, save for Min Min, who fell right down to the floor with a thud.

When the coach had come to a complete stop she carefully picked herself up again. “.... _ Arghh... _ ” She groaned wearily. “ _ Shoulda listened.... _ ”

“...Uh oh.” Ninjara mumbled, staring out the back window from behind the sofa that now bore his school papers. “You might wanna take a look at this, Coyle.”

Coyle, who’s legs had been knocked off of the dashboard by the sudden stop, got to her feet and made her way to the back of the coach There, behind the many rain droplets that littered the screen, grew a large tail of ghastly black smoke. “ _ ...Damn it. _ That doesn’t look good...”

“Something wrong with the engine...?” Mechanica asked, a little on edge from the sudden stop, her cereal pieces now littering the floor. “I-I can go take a look...”

“No, no...” Coyle sighed. “Not in  _ this _ rain. Springtron, go fix the engine!”

Without another word, Springtron got up from the driver’s seat and left out to coach door to go assess the situation.

“ _ But don’t be out there too long! _ ” She called after him. “I’m not in the mood to be fixing water damage.” She sat back down with a sigh. “I  _ really _ have to get around to waterproofing him...”

Min Min got back to her seat and flumped down, a little dizzy. “ _ I’m okay, by the wayyy... _ ”

Mechanica gave a simple pat to her back, then turned to Misango. “How did you know something was wrong...?”

“I felt a change in the vibrations.” He nodded. “Did you feel it too?”

She blinked. “N-No... The coach was already making a lot of noise, a-and especially with the rain...”

“Go on then, Peter Pan.” Coyle grumbled, getting to her feet and giving a stretch. “What  _ exactly _ is wrong with the coach?”

“I do not know.” He answered truthfully. “I am not familiar with the inner workings of your machines.”

“Well isn’t that just  _ great. _ ” Coyle groaned. “Misanga’s really workin’ overtime today, huh? Can show you when you’re engine is gonna explode, but only five seconds before it happens.”

“ _ Still five seconds before you! _ ” Min Min grinned cheekily at Coyle.

“...If I weren’t nine coach hours in I’d make you regret that.” Maybe she  _ was  _ getting old, after all.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mechanica stepped out into the rain carefully, feeling the soft splish-splash of the puddles under her shoes as she did so. The sun had almost set now, but it was still raining just as hard as it had been all afternoon. How  _ grisley. _

She held Ninjara’s waterproof jacket - the only waterproof clothing any of them had thought to bring on the trip - above her head as taut as she could, protecting her from the onslaught of sharp rain droplets falling from above, as she made her way down to the end of the coach. Just a moment ago she had made a big deal about how she’d be  _ fine _ just holding it above her, rather than  _ actually wearing it _ , because it would do more than enough to keep her dry... She found now, however, that she was decidedly  _ wrong  _ in this assessment - rain was finding its way to her, just as rain was known to do. But to give in now and dress herself with the coat would be to admit defeat! And that just simply wasn’t her style. 

Two glaring blue lights shined out at her in the darkening twilight as she turned the corner to the back of the coach. I was no surprise to find Springtron had heard her coming - he was always rather an observant one, unlike the man he was based on. A trait which made it quite hard for Mechanica to sneak up on him when she got bored of ARMS Lab work, but that added element of challenge was kinda fun anyway.

“H-Hi hi!!” She smiled brightly and cutely, like a charming little lamb running up to the petting zoo’s fence for a pat. “H-how’s the engine look...?” She was shivering slightly - it was  _ cold _ out here.

Springtron stared at her blankly for a moment, as he always did when talked to, then something in his chestpiece quietly whirred and a deep mechanical voice slowly sputtered out. “...You should. Get back inside. You will. Catch a cold.”

She shook her head from side to side quickly, sending small raindrops flying left and right. “I’m fine! Honest.” 

Springtron paused a moment, his cold blue eyes shining down on her, then he turned back to the open hatch where the engine lay. “...Engine damaged. Nothing too serious. Just needs repairs.”

“...C-Can you handle the repairs yourself?” She responded, readjusting the coat above her to stop a trickle of water that had been reaching her.

“...Yes.” He continued, unfeelingly. “But not. Until the rain stops.”

Springtron’s voice was a lot deeper and harsher than Byte’s, and pretty much any other robot’s, save for possibly Hedlock - who didn’t really speak to begin with. It didn’t seem to resemble Spring Man’s at all. It was likely some new voice chip entirely, probably built from the ground up without any voice recordings as a base, like a computer’s best attempt at recreating human speech, if it had only ever been given descriptions of speech before, and no samples to work from. It wasn’t a particularly comfortable voice to listen to - especially with the unnatural pauses he took every few words - but Mechanica, at least, had gotten used to it.

His gaze had turned upward now, leaving long streaks of rain sliding down the bulbs of his eyes. “Few more hours. Rain will clear up.”

Mechanica sighed, deflating slightly. “I guess we’re stuck waiting for a bit longer, then... We’ll probably have to sleep in the coach...” She pouted, watching the rain cause millions of tiny ripples in the inch or so of water that coated the whole road.

It didn’t rain like this often. She had only ever seen rain like this once before, as far as she could remember. It had been about two or three years back, some few weeks before she first got to meet Ribbon Girl back-stage at an ARMS match, and some few months before she first adopted the name ‘Mechanica’ and seriously got herself into building her way into ARMS fighting.

The rain had been deathly loud - amplified even more so by the tin roof of her workshop - and her scrapyard out back had flooded almost a foot high, damn near trapping her in there for about a day and a half. She later replaced a lot of the low-level fencing with mesh gate, rather than spare scrap metal.  _ ‘A lesson learnt, that’s what matters!’ _ , as her dad would say. She tried to hold true to that where she could, whenever life got her down, but she had come to find it didn’t always seem to apply.

Today’s rain came with no lesson, after all. They couldn’t have done much to prepare for rain like this, and the engine trouble seemed to be a whole separate issue anyway. They’d be delayed today and the exact same thing could delay them again another day, there was just no way of stopping it. The only lesson here was that life, sometimes, could just be  _ cruel _ .

...She kicked the water, causing a small splash to head out in the direction of the nearby woodlands that surrounded the road. “Bleh.” She stuck her tongue out. “Let’s go back inside and tell the others, then. We’ll wait things out...”

Springtron shut the coach’s engine hatch and clicked it shut, before offering a thumbs up in support. 

Mechanica looked up at him, that cute look on her face again. “...Y’knowww,  _ you coulddddd tell them yourselfffff~ _ ” Part of her was hesitant to give them bad news herself, but she was more so interested in getting him to  _ speak _ to them more - something she’d been trying to urge him to work on for  _ a while _ now.

Springtron stared at her unexpressionately, then turned his head slightly, a motion Mechanica took for  _ uncertainty _ .

She pouted, giving her best puppy dog eyes at him. “...They’re nice when you get to know them, honest!” She shined her teeth at him brightly. “A-And I think they’d like you too, once they get to know you better! ...Y-Yes, Coyle can be a bit  _ harsh, _ a-as you know, but there’s a still nice side to her too, I promise.”

Springtron slowly met her eyes again. “...I will. Work on it.” He whirled deeply. “Consider it. A work. In Progress.”

Mechanica’s cheeks squished out as she smiled widely. “...O-Okay, I think we need to get back in now.” She looked around nervously, at the steadily darkening surroundings. “...It’s getting kinda creepy out here. D-Don’t you think?” She looked back at him with something of an unease on her face. “We’ve seen barely any other cars on the road this whole trip... And there’s nothing around but forest.”

“Don’t make yourself. Scared.” He leant his hand under Ninjara’s coat and ruffled Mechanica’s hair a bit. “Now get back. Inside.” He whirred. “You’ll catch. A cold.”

“Can’t go swimming if I have a cold...” She muttered, nodding her head as she turned in place and made her way back to the coach’s door, Springtron following closely behind.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mechanica delivered the news in the end, having forgotten to ask Springtron to do it. The others responded in a surprisingly relaxed manner, assuring her that a couple extra hours wouldn’t be too bad, and that Springtron could make the repairs fairly quickly once the rain stopped.

Hours passed, and though the rain had lightened a bit, it still had a ways to go. After the third yawn from Mechanica - and two from both Min Min and Coyle, and one from Ninjara - it was Misango that first suggested they all take a rest for the night in the coach itself, rather than awaiting arrival at the designated hotel.

Some moderate protesting came from the younger two ladies aboard, given that none of them had really had a proper dinner at all, the coach beds paled in comparison to the hotel beds, and it  _ was _ rather early in the night still, now only sitting around 9pm or so. But after some further discussion, they all agreed it was the best of their options - if they were to stay up they’d arrive at the hotel,  _ exhausted _ , around 4am at the earliest, but if they slept in the coach bunks then Springtron could repair the engine and get them back on the road while they slept. Come morning they’d find their trip  _ much _ closer to completion, and that’d likely be worth the rough night.

They each piled into the stowaway coach bunks as comfortably as they could. There were only four of them in total - two on either side, stacked vertically - so Ninjara offered to take the sofa instead, a move that Min Min and Coyle both felt was more of a  _ bonus _ than a  _ sacrifice, _ but they neither bothered to argue for it. The bunks were cramped and hardly offered much wiggle room, especially for someone with shoulders like Coyle’s, but they could reasonably make do for one night. They were all pretty tired from the journey anyway, and the lack of a real evening dinner to keep their energy levels up helped to a degree.

And so they slept.

...For about forty minutes.

“Ohhh myyy  _ god _ ,,,” Coyle groaned harshly, bending the thin coach pillow over her ears as best she could. The others had all had similar ideas - some merely with their palms flat to the sides of their head, some plugging their ear canals with their fingers. The only one seemingly unaffected by the  _ deafening _ sound was, go figure, Misango, who continued to sleep like a fallen log with a warm mossy blanket.

Deciding she had had enough, Coyle sat up sharply in her bunk... Only to conk her head on the bunk’s ceiling. She remedied her throbbing forehead with the pressure of her palm as she  _ more carefully _ angled herself out of bunk - a move Min Min mimicked, though without the head bonk.

They knew the pattern now, so they waited a moment before beginning to discuss the elephant in the room. Another moment later and the ear-splitting whirring had once again died down to a softer hum, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

“You guys think it’s bad for you, imagine how  _ I _ feel.” Ninjara tiredly groaned from the sofa, leaning himself up with one ARM. Being at the back of the coach, the only thing that really separated him from the ear-hurtingly loud noises of Springtron’s engine repairs was a remarkably thin plane of metal and glass.

“M-Maybe he won’t be much longer...” Mechanica mumbled from her bunk, where she had slowly turned on her side to face the others. “I... Hope...”

Another long stretch of  _ BRZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT _ came from the back of the coach, and they all covered their ears again and waited. It was about twenty seconds each time, which is painfully long when you’re tired, hungry, and uncomfortable.

It stopped again -  _ for now. _ With a deep inhale, Coyle screeched out at a volume almost comparable to that of the repairs. “ _ SPRINGTRON. _ ” Some silence followed, then some light footsteps outside sloshed through the puddles left on the road, until the door creaked open quietly. Coyle gave an unamused smile at the metal man she, in some way, could describe as her son. “ _ How much longer. Are you going to be repairing for? _ ”

Springtron stared blankly at her, then quietly lifted up two fingers on one hand, and one finger on the other. The single finger receded down into itself, bring it about half the height it had been.

Coyle blinked tiredly and unforgivingly. “ _ Two and a half more hours? _ ” Springtron continued staring, giving no indication of if she had counted that correctly or not, but Coyle was fairly certain she knew how he displayed these things. She sighed deeply, putting her hands to her head and running her fingers through her hair. Springtron’s estimations weren’t often all that  _ accurate... _ But he had a habit of  _ underestimating, _ rather than  _ overestimating. _

“I do  _ not _ wanna sleep with that noise still goin’.” Min Min mumbled, worried Coyle might just tell Springtron to get back to it. “Can we just leave the repairs ‘til morning or something?  _ ...Please? _ ”

“It’d delay us quite a bit...” She responded, after a moment. “But, yeah,  _ I guess... _ I don’t want to put up with it either, anyway.”

Mechanica frowned. She, too, didn’t exactly want to try and sleep while that racket was going on, but she was also really eager to get to their destination as early as possible.

“...I guess we could also just stay up for the next few hours, then get back to sleep while Springtron drives.” Coyle sighed. They’d still have to listen to the repairs in that time, though.

“ _ Hey Springtron, _ ” Ninjara yawned from the back, as Springtron slowly turned to face him. “...Where’s the nearest possible hotel? I’ll take  _ literally _ anything at this point.”

“He’s not  _ Siri. _ ” Coyle glared sleepily from the corner of her eye. “...I  _ wish _ he were that helpful.”

“I really gotta do everything myself, huh...” He sighed, before poofing out of sight.

The roof of the coach creaked slightly, drawing everyone’s attention upward. Then came another poof, and a tree in the distance swayed slightly.

...Ninjara poofed back into the coach, wiping a wet hand on his shirt, from where he had been holding the tree top. “Nearest town is about a twenty minute walk, I think. S’a small place but they probably have somewhere to stay, or something.” He slid down the compartment door beneath Misango’s bunk - where Misango remained, still like a corpse - and withdrew his suitcase from the collection. “I dunno ‘bout you guys, but I’m goin’.”

The others looked at each other silently. A twenty minute walk wasn’t exactly the most appealing thing, but if there was a warm bed on the other side...

“The rain has stopped, yeah?”

“Yep.”

She sighed. “... _ You better not be wrong about this. _ ” Coyle groaned, getting to her feet and performing a quick aching stretch. “You didn’t just see  _ light, _ right? You saw  _ buildings? _ ”

“I saw a town.” Ninjara returned. “It was definitely a town, and a town with people living in it.”

“F-” She yawned. “...Fine. I’m in.”

Without another word, Min Min and Mechanica slowly got to their feet too, both looking about as equally as tired as Coyle. To their surprise, Misango also got up to his feet - looking as well rested as ever, actually.

“...You comin’ too?” Coyle blinked at him, her eyes only opening about half way. She had honestly intended to just leave him here, given he seemed to be sleeping fine.

Misango nodded. “Best we stay together. Strange air tonight.”

She stared for a moment, one eye almost completely shut with the other at half-mast, and then turned for her suitcase. “Well I don’t got enough energy to ask what  _ that _ means, but whatever. Let’s get a move on.”

They grabbed their gear and wrapped up as warm as they could - Ninjara in his coat, Min Min in one of the fleeces Ribbon Girl had insisted she bring, and Mechanica just wrapped tightly in a spare coach blanket.

The six of them left the coach, out into the cold air of the dead of night, the road still as empty as it had been all day. They locked up behind them, as needless as that may have been, and began their way down the road toward where Ninjara had seen the town.

It was pitch-black out now, with very little city light pollution to help brighten things up - something that might have otherwise, in a nicer setting, been a rather nice scene, but here instead only helped to up the creepiness of the road. Forest to the left, forest to the right. Pitch black in the dead of night, on a road no cars seemed to travel down, with only the sound of their sloshing footsteps for company.  _ Eek. _

Springtron took the helm at the front of the party and lit their way with his eyes shining at an almost floodlight level of brightness, basting the front-and-center of their journey in deep blue light. Coyle walked behind him, rather like a middle aged mother making her way to the other end of the kitchen where the coffee machine lay, and behind her trudged Min Min and Ninjara,  _ zombie-like _ in their strides. Coming up the rear was Misango, who had now begun to carry Mechanica in his ARMS, saving the poor girl from making the tiresome journey on her own.

“I count-” Coyle yawned again. “...I count about twenty minutes, Ninjara.  _ Where’s the town? _ ”

Ninjara took a deep sigh, then poofed up ahead gripped to a treetop somewhere on their left. He poofed back down again, stumbling a little as he did. “...Right around the corner.”

Well that was welcome news, at least.


	2. A Good Night’s Rest

A few steps later, a parting in the trees came into view within their basking blue light. This gave way to a series of small homes, some larger buildings (possibly stores), a gas station, and-

“_ OH! _ ” Min Min gasped sharply, her eyes lighting up. “ _ Is that a hotel?! _”

Ahead of them, not too far from the edge of the town, lay a fairly big building beside a big wide lake. ‘_ INN’ _, the sign read.

A series of relieved smiles washed on the faces of the fighters, knowing now that a bed was just within reach. They paused for a moment just outside the building, right by the large lake that accompanied it, and turned to each other, just as Misango set down Mechanica, who sleepily wiped her eyes.

“Right then.” Coyle nodded. “_ Springtron _ \- you go head back to the coach, do the repairs needed, then drive it back here by morning.” The metal man turned on a dime and began to walk back the way they’d just come from, down the dark and lifeless road. “...The rest of you, just relax for a sec and I’ll get us some rooms. We’ll probably have to _ share... _” She grumbled a little as she said the word. “...But we might be able to get two rooms, so we can then split it by gender.” Most ideally, she thought, would be a third room for just herself, if luck were in her favour.

“That’s fine...” Mechanica mumbled sleepily, rubbing her arms for warmth. She’d equipped some Ribbon Girl-patterned gloves - the kind that were intended to make the non-ARM’d people look and feel as if they had the ARMS of any League fighter of their choice - before she left the coach, but they were _ painfully _ thin. At least she looked cool though, she figured.

“Can we go inside now?” Min Min shivered. “It’s _ cold _ out here...”

“_ Trust me, _” Coyle sighed, turning around and beginning their treck into the building. “The cold was preferable to-”

It hit them all as they walked in through the doorway - _ blindingly _ bright white lights, cold and clinical, shining out from the ceiling in several spots, exactly the worst thing to be subject to when your eyes have been accustomed to the dark for the past long while. _ Bleh. _

The receptionist behind the desk - a young woman, likely in her early twenties, with long blonde hair and pretty little freckles all over her face - jumped slightly at seeing the five of them walk in. “A-Ahh...” She stammered. “I-I...” She quickly looked down at the book in front of her and flicked through the pages. “I-I didn’t think we had any reservations for tonight...”

“No reservation, I’m afraid.” Coyle mumbled, approaching the desk while the others tiredly sat around on the nearby sofas. “Our coach broke down so we had to make an unexpected stop. Got any rooms free...?”

The receptionist - whose name was _ Alice _ , according to her nametag - looked back at her and continued to shake her lower jaw in stuttering surprise. “I-I... W-Well, we...” She cleared her throat. “...S-Sorry, _ coach...? _”

“Mm.” She nodded. “It’s just the five of us, though. The coach is less like a public bus and more like a tour bus, y’know?” She motioned lazily to the others with her hand. “We’re _ ARMS fighters... _ Whoopty doo.”

Alice looked uneasily at the others, then quickly flicked her eyes back to Coyle’s, her head now still. “_ ARMS fighters? _ ” She smiled brightly, then let out a sigh of relief. “O-Oh, wow, okay... _ Phew. _ ” She laughed. “W-Well, that’s great! Welcome to _ Redwood. _ it’s a small town but I like to describe it more as ‘ _ cosy _ ’ _ . _”

“_ Fantastic... _” Coyle yawned, boredly. “You got rooms free?”

“A-Ah! Um, y-yes, we do have some rooms free...” She flicked through the book ahead of her. “I-It’s $10 for queen-bed room, $12 if you want breakfast included.”

Coyle blinked. “...Well that’s remarkably cheap.”

“Mmhmm!” She smiled back. “We do pride ourselves in very affordable rates. With no cut in the quality of your stay, of course!”

“Alright, well, how many rooms d’y’got for $12, then?” Breakfast in the morning was a must, of course.

“Well if there are five of you I can put you each in your own rooms, if you’d like!” She smiled softly.

“Go for it.” Coyle shrugged. She was going to use the League’s credit card anyway.

“Great great great...” She smiled, scribbling down in her book. “...B-By the way, i _ love _ your ARMS!” She grinned, her teeth shining the white of the lights above back into Coyle’s tired eyes. “...What are they made of...?”

“A copper-zinc alloy.” She muttered back. “_ Don’t _ say _ ‘brass’ _, it’s a lot more sophisticated than that and I don’t have the time to correct you.” She noted, briefly, that the receptionist herself had rather pretty knitted ARMS - colourful and cute, if a bit grandmotherly.

“Mm.” She nodded, still scribbling. “...A-And the others?”

Coyle sighed, craning her neck to look at the fighters behind her. “The nerd has chain-link ARMS, the strong one has some sorta woven fabric, the lil one has mechanical ARMS, anddddd the one in the beanie has ramen ARMS.” She turned back to the receptionist. “...Except sometimes one of them is a dragon, or whatever. She’s weird.”

“_ Mm, right, right... _” Alice continued, still scribbling into her book. “...Alright, well, if you slide your card I’ll get you your keys!”

Rather quaintly, she _ did _ actually mean _ keys _ \- she turned to a small cupboard behind her and opened it to reveal a series of traditional keys on hooks, of which she selected five.

She set the keys on the counter with a smile. “You’re all booked in for the night! Just head up the stairs and you’re the first set of doors you’ll see.” She leant over the counter, and began pointing her pen in various directions. Breakfast is between seven and nine, there’s a pool down the hall to the left open from ten to eight, a restaurant down the hall to the right that closes at half eleven, and down the street there’s a service that’ll lend you fishing gear if you want to fish out on the lake.” She smiled. “Sound good?”

Coyle hadn’t really been listening to all of that, and merely wiped sleep out of her eyes. “...You had a lot of keys in there. Are we the only guests?”

Alice frowned. “A-At present, yes.” She shrugged, embarrassed. “We don’t get a _ whole _ lot of visitors - we’re kinda in the middle of nowhere, I guess. But a lot of the locals eat at our restaurant, so if you’re looking to meet some people you’ll find them there!”

Coyle walked off somewhere around the word ‘looking’, bored of the peppy receptionist, and headed over to the others. She kicked Ninjara in the leg, as if the get the attention of the group, but mostly just because she wanted to. “Room keys.” She threw them at each of them one-by-one, save for Mechanica, who had hers given to her politely. “

“What time do we-” Min Min yawned, putting her hand to her mouth - something Ribbon GIrl had desperately taught her to do. “...What time do we leave tomorrow?”

Coyle felt like she could probably comfortably sleep for about sixteen hours if given the chance, but she decided to be a bit more reasonable. “...Let’s try and meet up around eight and we’ll leave some time around nine.” She scratched her forehead. “...Unless there’s something still wrong with the coach, but Springtron has all night to fix it so we _ should _ be fine...” She stretched a bit. “There’s breakfast in the morning too, by the way.”

“Ohhh my _ godddd... _ ” Min Min smiled widely. “Breakfast sounds _ so _ good, I’m _ starving. _”

“Me tooooooo...” Mechanica mumbled, her eyes dropping a bit.

Coyle, as eager as she was to get to bed, was distinctly aware of her own hunger too. “...Well the restaurant is still open for another hour or something, _ I think. _ ” She turned for the stairs. “Go put your stuff away and come down for dinner if you want it. Or just sleep, _ I don’t care either way. _”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They had all come down for dinner, in the end. Their limited food supply on the coach must have really left them hanging.

The hotel’s restaurant was thankfully kinder lit with softer, more orange-toned bulbs, and an overall much warmer atmosphere. True to the receptionist’s word, there were other people dining tonight, despite the hotel’s otherwise vacant rooms. _ Locals. _

The five of them sat down at a table and Coyle hurriedly clicked her fingers for the menus to be handed out, impatient and really starting to feel a need for some dinner. Ninjara - who knew a handful of waitresses at his Ninja College - had half a mind to tell her off for being disrespectful to the waitstaff, but his exhaustion outmatched his disapproval, so he didn’t bother.

A rather cheery waitress handed out some menus, took some drink orders, and then hurried out just as quickly as she had came. The options seemed pretty good - various steak cuts, fish choices, burgers and pastas and salads... All the basics were covered, and the prices seemed pretty manageable at that! ...Not that Coyle cared, given it was the League’s money she’d be spending.

“Dang, no ramen.” Min Min muttered. “I _ knew _ something felt off about this town.”

“Have some _ ribs _ instead.” Ninjara snorted, thinking it was a rather clever joke. In actuality, it was taken as a pretty good suggestion instead.

Mechanica flipped the menu over and frowned - no kid’s menu...? _ But that’s where all the safest options were! _ If she had an adult-menu burger she’d be picking out toppings all night. _ Why won’t anyone think of the children?! _

In the end their choices were pretty standard: steak for Coyle, bbq ribs for Min Min, dry ribs for Misango, breaded chicken strips for Mechanica, some sort of eggplant dish for Ninjara...

...And the food _ looked _ wonderful! Just the mere sight of each dish as it got set down before them all seemed to boost their energy levels tenfold.

“Y’know,” Min Min smirked. “...I kinda like this place!” She split a knife through the seams of the ribs and pulled a big saucey bone up to her watering mouth.

“Stay as long as y’d like!” The waitress smiled, setting down Ninjara’s dish - the last of them to be brought over. “Anything else I can do for you all before I leave you to it?”

Mechanica smiled softly in her seat, seeming rather small and cute. “C-Could I get some ketchup for my chicken?”

“Of course!” The waitress nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

Mechanica thanked her as she left, then pinched the end of her Ribbon Girl gloves and began to pull them off. “It _ is _ a pretty nice place... The bed looked really comfy when I put my stuff upstairs.” She took a chicken strip and bit the end of it.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Min Min agreed. “I almost just went right to bed... _ Kinda glad I didn’t, though. _” She pulled some meat off a rib with her teeth.

“I mean, if the foods good and the beds are good, I guess this could be a good stopping point on the way to Fontaine for whoever comes up next?” Ninjara added, prodding at his dish with his fork. “Splits the journey more evenly over the two days, right?”

Coyle nodded as she chewed at her rather perfectly cooked steak, though her praise _ could _ have been a side effect from her immense hunger. “It’d be a cheaper option too. Maybe it _ would _ be worth telling the League. I’m sure this place could use the business anyways.”

“Your ketchup, lil one!~” Smiled the waitress as she extended a fine soapstone ARM to hand the ketchup bottle she’d returned with to Mechanica.

Mechanica smiled warmly and reached out for it, taking the bottle.

...The waitress stared for a moment, as if she’d suddenly crashed like a computer. She retracted her now-free hand slowly, her eyes fixated on Mechanica, who was now more focused on pouring ketchup on her plate.

“They’ll prob sort out a trainline to Fontaine.” Min Min added. “They usually do once an arena pops up somewhere. Makes things a lot easier.”

The waitress finally took her leave, her eyes pointed at the floor, and her smile gone from her face. She went straight into the kitchen and out of sight.

“...Did they tell you when the pool is open?” Mechanica mumbled, as politely as she could, between bites.

Coyle, whom her question had been directed to, squinted her eyes at Mechanica. “You’ll swim when we get there, just sleep tonight.” She cut another piece of her steak. “I thought you were _ tired. _”

“I’m waking up a bit!” She smiled. All of them were, admittedly - though knowing how these things tended to go, they’d all be just as tired as they had been when they started when they finally finished their meals. A full belly really gets you ready to hit the pillow, after all.

“The hotel room provided to me came with a small pool of its own.” Misango nodded at Mechanica. “You might have one as well.”

“S’called a bath, dude.” Min Min munched back, her face covered in bbq sauce. “S’like one of those streams you guys bathe in, but _ inside. _”

“Is this _ really _ Misango’s first time grappling the concept of _ baths? _ ” Coyle muttered in monotone. “Fontaine’ll give you heart problems, at this rate.” Her eyes flicked up from her plate for a second and she caught, if only for a moment, the sight of three people by the entrance. She looked again a split second later - that way you do when you glance over something you _ instinctively _know isn’t right - and noticed the waitress stood next to a rather burly looking woman in a chef’s coat.

The woman was talking, rather _ aggressively _ it seemed, to the young receptionist Coyle had been speaking to earlier. The receptionist had that book of her, and she was shakily trying to point to something in it, and then-

...All three of them looked directly as the table where the five of them sat. Coyle straightened her back, weirdly aware that things were about to turn sour, but completely unsure why she felt they would.

The three women began walking over to their table, and Coyle swallowed the piece of steak in her mouth and set her knife and fork down.

The five of them turned to face the three upon hearing the approach, each of them more confused than the last about the sudden interruption.

“You all need to leave.” The burly woman commanded, her ARMS - made of some sort of vegetable, possibly stringy spinach? - folded in front of her chest.

The four of them, barring Coyle who had foreseen this, stopped mid-bite. “...Excuse me?” Coyle muttered for them, her eyes in a trained glare.

“_ I said you all need to leave. _ ” She repeated. “ _ Immediately. _ ” Her tone, for the record, could not easily be mistaken for one of concern or forewarning - this was an _ order _, plain and simple.

Coyle flicked her eyes to the other two accompanying the woman who, presumably, was the restaurant’s chef. The waitress met her eyes, looking slightly apologetic, but more so staunch. The receptionist, on the other hand, avoided her glaze - staring down at the floor with her book tightly hugged to her chest. _ Always a weak link, _ Coyle thought, before clearing her throat. “ _ Was there an issue with the payment? _”

Her question, directed to the receptionist, went unanswered - but it did seem to make her squirm a bit. “I _ said _ ,” began the chef again. “ _ GET OUT. _”

The rest of the room had gone silent now, and all eyes were on the ongoing commotion. The four other tables - two couples, an elderly man on his own, and a threesome of sixty-something year old men - had fallen silent, and each diner had turned in their chairs to watch.

The chef put a hand to her hip, getting impatient. “What, are you all _ deaf? _ I said-”

Coyle cut her off abruptly - something she was waiting to do, in fact. “_ Yeah, we heard ya the first time. _ But we ain’t goin’ _ anywhere _, so how’s about you shut up and leave us be?”

Min Min set her rib down and wiped her face with a napkin, perhaps subtly preparing for whatever outcome this argument could erupt into. It wouldn’t be the first time Coyle started a fight, and, well, she intended to have her back, she guessed. Meanwhile, Mechanica, who wasn’t much good in a fight without her mech, sunk down in her chair a touch, uncomfortable with the conflict unfolding.

“...What? Are _ you _ deaf?!” Coyle continued, after the chef’s only response was a hard and disgusted glare. “ _ I said we aren’t going anywhere. _ Are you gonna leave us the fuck alone, or am I gonna have to add a pulpy soup to your menu?”

“_ I-It’s for your own good!! _ ” The receptionist blurted out quickly, evidently just as uncomfortable with the conflict as Mechanica was. “I-I can refund your payment fully - f-food included, even!” She gulped. “J-Just... I-If you could leave _ tonight _, then-”

“_ I said _ ** _we aren’t leaving._ ** ” Coyle repeated, getting angrier. “ _ You shitheads wanna tell me what the problem is? _”

“Let ‘em stay.” Came a voice from another table, to which the eight of them all immediately turned their attention to. It was a man in his late eighties, it seemed, who had now turned back to his meal - some sort of fish, possibly salmon - as if he couldn’t care less about the kerfuffle brewing three tables over. “You warned ‘em. S’not your fault if they wanna stay.”

The chef looked sourly at the back of the man’s head - all she could see, from where she stood - and then looked down at the floor. She pouted, then turned on a dime and left for the kitchen without another word, followed closely by her waitress.

The receptionist - young and blonde, with her nametag innocently baring the name Alice - remained in place a moment longer, her freckled face distressed and agape with uncertainty. She hugged her book tightly, looking back and forth between the five of them, and then made an effort to shut her mouth and move her feet. She looked right at the floor and hurried out, as if she had no choice in the matter, and had been ordered to by her mother.

“_ ...Weird. _ ” Min Min muttered, glaring in the vague direction they had all come from, before turning back to face the others. “What the hell was up with _ that? _”

“Beats me.” Coyle muttered, picking up her knife and fork again, and slicing back into her steak. “Talk about mood swing. Just when we were actually _ liking _ the place, too.” Her steak, she noted, didn’t quite taste as great now.

“Yeah, _ yeesh. _” Min Min added, picking up the rib she had lowered. 

Mechanica slowly brought herself out of her chair. She’d sort of lost her appetite, but she continued nonetheless to eat what she could - if she didn’t, she knew she’d regret it later on. One of those lessons she’d learnt.

“I _ guess _ the receptionist didn’t know who we were, then one of the others recognised us?” Ninjara threw out, admittedly grasping at straws. “Maybe they’ve got a _ thing _ against ARMS fighters or somethin’.”

“Could be...” Coyle agreed, in an unusual example of her actually agreeing with one of his usually outlandish theories. This theory did have _ some _ weight to it, though - the chef _ did _ have ARMS, and it wasn’t entirely unheard of for ARMS-bearers to have a dislike of ARMS fighting as a sport. Made a connection between having ARMS and being violent, or something stupid like that.

But it really didn’t matter. So long as the locals minded their own business, they’d be out of here the next morning without further incident.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They finished their meals over the course of the next fifteen minutes or so, which left them feeling rather satisfied and pleased with the evening as a whole, despite their prior rude interruption. Some discussion about whether or not to stay for dessert too could likely have followed - the menu _ did _ have some eye-catching options, after all - but there was something of an unspoken air between them that knew that extending their stay in the dining hall might not be the most welcome of moves with the kitchen staff. Better to avoid it.

They all left for their rooms together, which made sense as their rooms were lined up in a row, all side-by-side. Room 201, 202, 203... You get the idea.

But as the group made their way to the stairs, Coyle did take a quick glance toward the reception desk, if only to confirm what she’d already assumed: Alice, the peppy yet rather spineless receptionist was staring straight to the floor, her head sunk low to her chest with an uneasy expression on her face. What was _ with _ this kid? She seemed so troubled when they first arrived, then seemed perfectly chipper, and then the whole restaurant fiasco unfolded and she’s back on edge... _ Something _ was up. There was more going on here than first met the eye - something kept quiet between the locals.

...Seriously? _ This _ again? _ It does! Not! Matter! _ They’d be out of this dumb the next morning, so why even bother allocating brain cells to it all? Let them have their secrets - _ it doesn’t matter! _

“...Coyle?” Mechanica blinked, tilting her head a degree in curiosity.

Coyle flicked her eyes down at her. “H-Hm? ..._ Oh. _” She was so lost in her own head that she hadn’t realized they’d made it to their rooms already.

Mechanica smiled softly. “I said goodnight!~” The others had all gone in without another word - likely too tired to continue chatting - so now it was just the two of them.

“...Ah.” Coyle smiled back, before placing a hand on Mechanica’s head and ruffling her hair. “Sorry it’s been such a busy day, dear. I promise I’ll get us to Fontaine as early as I can tomorrow. I know you’re excited...”

“_ Yes!! _ ” Mechanica beamed a bright grin and bounced a little in her step. “It’ll be _ soooo _ much fun, I just know it!~” 

“Alright, alright, _ calm down! _” Coyle laughed quietly, beginning to really feel the exhaustion catching up on her. “Just get some rest and we’ll be on our way, yeah? Don’t get yourself too excited to sleep.”

Mechanica, admittedly, had an issue managing that - especially on Christmas Eve, or when she knew she’d be going to a Ribbon Girl concert the next day. “I’ll be fine! ...If they have those little tea and coffee set things, I might make a hot chocolate first - but then I’ll get right to bed!” 

“Sugar-” Coyle yawned, “...Will only make it _ harder _ to sleep.” The thought did occur though, that if Mechanica _ were _ to stay up all night she _ would _ have a chance to catch up on sleep on the remainder of the drive - they did still have a good distance to go, after all. So perhaps it wasn’t really _ that _ crucial she hit the pillow right this moment. But it was still good advice nonetheless!

Mechanica casually ignored Coyle’s comment, then reached a hand out for the handle of her door - _ Room 204 _. She fished in the pocket of her dungarees and pulled out the key she’d been given. “I can’t believe I get my own room, too!” She grinned, slipping the key into the lock. “I kinda wanna take a bath. I don’t have a bath at my place - only a shower!” She shined her smile to Coyle again, as she cracked open her door. “I finally have a tub all to myself!!”

“Don’t go crazy now! It’s a shorter night than you think.” A bath with some hot chocolate _ did _ sound quite nice, though. “Breakfast at eight tomorrow - _ don’t forget it! _” She turned and made way for her own door, Room 201, at the front of the line.

Mechanica smiled as she watched Coyle head off. “_ Good night!! _” She called out sweetly. She then went back into her room and shut the door.

And that was the last time anyone saw Mechanica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Chapter updates will be each Wednesday for the foreseeable future!~)


	3. Absent

Min Min awoke feeling, arguably, better than she possibly ever had in her life up until that very moment.

...Okay, yes, it was an exaggeration and she knew that - but compared to the stiff and narrow coach bunks they had attempted to sleep in the night before?  _ This bed was as soft as a cloud. _

Before leaving the soft confines of blanket and pillow, she opted to give Ribbon Girl a call and update her on the journey so far. Ribbon Girl, eager to hear how a two-day coach trip with  _ Coyle _ aboard would go, had requested she do such make the call “ _ the moment you get in bed! _ ”, even if it were as late as 4am or 5am when that happened. Min Min, the night prior, had chosen to instead leave it for the next morning. There was really no need to stay up longer than she already had at that point, and she knew Ribbon Girl wouldn’t be particularly responsive in the dead of night anyway

Ribbon Girl was happy to hear her voice again - she had gotten worried (irrationally, of course) that something might have happened to them all. But such was not the case! In fact, they were all in a rather good mood. Last Min Min had seen them all, at least.

Min Min wove her story of the trip in great detail, from Ninjara almost missing the coach at the very start, to the moment she finally put her head to the pillow. She painted tall tales of the harsh rain they had faced, bigged-up the dramatic twist of the coach’s sudden stop, and talked  _ wonders _ of the incredible food they had all had after arriving at the hotel (including the obvious joke about her meal of choice being ribs,  _ of course _ ). Curiously, without particularly intending to, she had actually omitted the part where they’d been ambushed by the kitchen staff. That detail didn’t really matter anyway, though - it didn’t exactly amount to much, and it’d only make Ribbon Girl worry anyway.

She gave her goodbyes when she felt time catching up with her and hopped out of bed to take a much needed shower. She dried off, dressed herself, and then set her things to one side for easy collection later. Breakfast first, then her bags, then back on the coach. Done deal!

It was about a quarter to eight when she arrived downstairs. The hotel was just as deserted as the night before - now lacking even the receptionist - but the kitchen staff seemed to be in and,  _ thankfully, _ didn’t seem to cause any commotion on her approach to the table.

“Good morning.” Ninjara mumbled, flicking an eye up from his book for only a moment. He and Misango were already at the table, enjoying some fruits, toasts, coffee (in Ninjara’s case), and sausages (in Misango’s case). Also at the table sat Springtron, silent and not eating, which really wasn’t a surprise.

Min Min took her seat with the other. “‘Sup, losers.” She recalled, just as she pulled her chair forward, that she’d need to get up again to get her food.  _ Dangit. _ “...You help Misango get sorted?”

Ninjara nodded slowly. Taking Misango through the breakfast selection hadn’t been as hard as he had thought. A couple explanations as to what various options  _ were, _ sure, but overall it had gone quite well.

Min Min yawned. “I like this place! Good beds.” She looked around at all the empty tables in the room. They were the only people seated today - unlike the turned heads that stared back the previous evening. “...I wonder if we’ll come back here at all.”

“Depends if we’re welcome.” Ninjara said, shrugging his shoulders apathetically. “Small towns breed weirdos, I guess.”

In her head, Min Min could picture Ribbon Girl cringing at that comment - wishing it had been said a  _ little  _ quieter. She turned her attention to the Misangan beefcake, who had three slices of toast stacked in one hand, a large bite mark indented at the same place on all three. “How’d  _ you _ sleep?”

He nodded slowly, finishing his food  _ before _ he began to talk. Something Twintelle had taught him well, it seemed! “...I slept well. Comfortable bed.”

Min Min nodded, then drummed her fingers on the table, bored. Without another word, she skid her chair back and went to get some food.

It was a good selection! Min Min piled a plate high with all manner of things - sausages, bacon, toast, some scrambled eggs, some pancakes, some cereal, some apple slices... Some (Ribbon Girl, again) might call have called it a messy pile of mix-matched foods that wouldn’t combine well at all, but Min Min called it  _ a good and hearty breakfast _ . Stomach of steel, she had! And she was proud of it.

As she reapproached the others, plate stacked high, she saw Coyle entering in with a cautious gaze, peering around as if expecting several turned heads silently staring again like the night before.

“...Glad to see you lot are up already.” Coyle muttered, pulling out a chair for herself. “Saves me going to wake you all.” She sat, then remembered she had to get up again to get her food. Why was that such an easy mistake to make?!

“We just waitin’ on Mechy now?” Min Min asked, carefully setting down her tower of toppling breakfast foods.

Coyle took a moment to look  _ disgustedly _ at the plate Min Min had built, then shook it off. “Just Mechanica, yes. She’s likely more tired than she thought she’d be.” Coyle turned her attention to Springtron. “All good with the coach?”

He gave a steady thumbs up.

“And you’ve got it parked out front somewhere?”

Another thumbs up.

“Sheems we’re all shet!” Min Min, with a bit of meat, a bit of toast, and a bit of  _ fruit _ in her mouth, mumbled back at her. Clearly  _ she _ would need lessons from Twintelle next.

“...Seems so.” Coyle replied quietly, getting to her feet to claim her food. But something still didn’t quite fit  _ right _ with her.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was about twenty past eight now, and while the others had all finished their breakfasts, there was still no sign of Mechanica coming down for hers.

Min Min, feeling reenergized with the might of both sleep and food, made the offer to ascend the stairs and go knock on her door. The strange stillness of the hotel felt weirdly uninviting as she roamed the halls, almost like the place had been abandoned for several years now, but she didn’t let that get to her - she was in a good mood, after all! The day had started off on a good foot: she was well rested and well fed, there had been no further commotion from the locals, the coach had been repaired and parked nearby, and even the sky was clear of any further rain clouds. What could go wrong?

“...Mechanica?” Min Min knocked to the door. “Hellooooo?  _ C’mon, sleepyhead! _ ”

The lack of any response felt kinda bothersome, more than anything else. It didn’t cross her mind for a moment that anything could be  _ off _ about this - Mechanica was something of a heavy sleeper, and she simply wasn’t doing enough to wake her up.

...She thumped her fist hard against the door, making it shake a bit. “MECHANICAAAAA!  _ WAKE UPPPPPPPP!~ _ ” She sang, figuring that they were alone in the hotel anyway so she could afford to make a bit of noise.

There was still no response, however. The room lay just as still and silent as the rest of the hotel -  _ eerily so. _

She tried her phone again, putting it to her ear as the number connected. Through the door she could  _ hear _ it ring - playing one of Ribbon Girl’s songs, which wasn’t quite surprising, given who owned the phone. But the song played out until the call gave up waiting for an answer.

She sighed, putting her forehead to the door.  _ Great. _ Her best bet now was probably to go speak to the hotel staff - something she was  _ kinda _ trying to avoid - and have them give her a spare key.

...She paused. Perhaps there  _ was _ another way, actually.

Ninjara, following up from the call she had placed, poofed his way over to the stairs, up the stairs, and down to the door where Min Min awaited. It looked a bit excessive to travel like that - he  _ knew _ it did - but it was certainly a lot of fun, and he liked to show off sometimes. “Somebody call for a ninja?~” He smirked, in his idea of a ‘cool’ manner.

Min Min snorted at his goofy and beyond  _ failed _ attempt of being suave, then knocked her knuckle against the door of Room 204. “Mechy’s still dozin’. Think you can poof your way in?”

“ _ Duh. _ ” He responded, matter-of-factly. “No sweat!”

“Get to it, then.” Min Min shrugged, stepping back from the door. “Just give her a nudge for me so we can get her attention.”

Ninjara paused, staring at the ‘204’ placard on the door. “.,.You’re  _ sure _ she’s still asleep, yeah?”

“...Yeah.” Min Min blinked. “Why? What else would she be doing?”

He looked at her, a little uneasy. “I’m just sayin’, like...  _ I don’t wanna appear in there when she’s in the middle of getting changed or something. _ That’d raise  _ all sorts _ of hell.”

Min Min snorted again. “ _ Chill, _ dude. If she were getting changed she’d hear  _ this. _ ” She bangged her hand on the door again in several hard thumps. “ _ MECHANICAAAA, YOU THERE? _ ” They both paused, watching the door, but there was only silence. “...See? Still asleep.”

“...And she’s not just in the shower or something?”

“ _ Godddd, _ dude!” Min Min laughed, folding herself over before straightening up again. “ _ We’d hear the shower! _ ” 

“Fiiiiine, fiiiiiine!” Ninjara sighed, a small smile on his face, aware that he  _ was _ being a little paranoid. “...Alright, here we go then.”

Min Min softly wafted away the sudden white smoke to assist in its dissipation and waited patiently. A moment passed, and she felt a strange...  _ Unease _ begin to build in her.  _ What gives?  _ Shouldn’t Ninjara have been back after, like, two seconds? How long does it take to nudge a heavy sleeper?

...Ninjara poofed back, having been gone for a total of about forty seconds -  _ way _ longer than expected. He looked at the ground, lost in thought for a moment, then looked up at Min Min. “...She’s not in there.”

Min Min blinked. “...What do you mean?”

“I mean she’s not in there.” He shrugged his shoulders slightly, a bit lost. “She’s not in her bed, she’s not in the bathroom, she’s just...  _ Not in there. _ ”

Min Min paused for a moment, as if trying to process exactly what he was trying to say. “...How can she  _ not _ be in there?! Where  _ else _ would she have gone?”

“ _ I dunno, dude! _ ” Ninjara responded, just as bewildered as Min Min. “But she’s not in  _ there! _ ”

Min Min put a hand to her mouth, thinking. “...Check again.”

“...What?” He blinked. “Dude,  _ I checked the whole place! _ ”

“ _ You must have missed her wrapped up in the blankets or something! _ ” She insisted.

He rolled his eyes, then held out a hand. “ _ Here. _ ”

She took it, not really sure what he was-

...Min Min slammed to the floor hard, having fallen from about two feet up. She coughed some ashy smoke out of her lungs as she propped herself up from where she lay. “ _ O-Ouch, man. _ ” She looked around -  _ she was now in Room 204, _ poofed into it along with Ninjara.

He extended a hand and helped her to her feet. “You’re supposed to hold your breath and keep a wide stance.”

“Yeah,  _ thanks. _ ” She glared at him, a little wobbly as she stood back up. “Could have told me that... Before...” She slowed her speech to a halt and she looked around the room. The bed  _ was _ empty - the blanket visibly slept in but peeled back, as if whoever had been sleeping had later gotten out.

“See?” He said, moving his ARM over the room in a sweeping motion. “Empty bed. And she’s not in the bathroom, either?” He watched as Min Min stuck her head into the bathroom via the open door to verify for herself. “She’s not under the desk or behind the curtains, either.”

Min Min walked over to the window mindlessly and checked if it was locked.  _ It was. _ She blinked, unsure of what she’d really been considering there when she decided to check. “...O-Okay, well, where’d she  _ go _ , then?”

He shrugged widely at her. “I guess she went down for breakfast and couldn’t find back the restaurant?” It really hadn’t been a hard thing to remember, given it was just down the hall from the lobby, but she  _ had _ been pretty tired the night before. “Or maybe she went to go check on the coach or something.”

Min Min looked solemnly at the smart phone left on the bedside table, it’s self-made case clunky and boisterous like most of Mechanica’s creations. “...Something doesn’t feel right.”

He paused. “...What do you mean?”

“I-I dunno...” She continued to stare at her phone - the one she  _ definitely _ wouldn’t have left without. Not for breakfast. Not to check on the coach. “...I just feel a little...  _ Sick. _ ”

“Oooookay,  _ steady now. _ ” Ninjara urged, carefully guiding her to sit herself down on the bed. “Just  _ relax. _ She’s probably just gone for a look around downstairs or something.”

Min Min stared at the phone, concern welling up in the back of her thr- “ _ OH! _ ” She jumped suddenly, quickly getting to her feet with a bright smile on her face. She went straight past Ninjara, heading for the door.

“Uhhhh...?” He stood, watching her with a look of confusion across his face.

She smirked at him. “She left her room and didn’t take her phone with her.” She put a hand to her hip, proud of herself for being a real good sleuth. “ _ Remember how badly she wanted to go swimming? _ ”

Ninjara sighed a sigh that, surprising himself, felt  _ basked _ in relief. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense.” He smiled warmly, following her as she put her hand on the door handle and opened the door.

“...” She squinted, looking at the door she now held slightly ajar. She looked over her shoulder slowly. “ _ ...Was the door open this whole time? _ ”

He blinked. “...I-I did think  _ you _ would have tried the door before I even got upstairs, so...”

She rolled her eyes, then looked down at the keyhole. “C’mon Mechy,  _ use your head. _ ” She withdrew the key from the keyhole and, when they had both left the room, used it to lock the door behind them.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they stepped back onto the ground floor and turned the corner into the hallway, they came to a pause as they found themselves just a few feet short of Dr. Coyle, who had grown bored of waiting for them to return and had left to go see what the hold-up was.

“Oh!” Min Min jumped, a little startled. “...Hey, has she caught up with you guys yet?”

“...No?” Coyle stared. “ _ I thought I sent you two to go wake her up. _ ”

“She’s not in her room.” Ninjara replied bluntly - a little too bluntly, actually, as Min Min could see the concern instantly growing on Coyle’s face.

“ _ R-Relax, relax! _ ” She urged quickly, before all hell broke loose. “She’s just gone swimming is all.”

Coyle’s jaw lowered. “ _ Gone swimming? _ ...You’re joking.” She put a hand to her face. “ _ Oh, Mechanica... _ Practice  _ some _ patience,  _ please. _ ” With a deep sigh, she began to walk further down the hallway - past the stairs she had initially intended to climb - more in the direction now of the hotel’s swimming pool. “Let’s hope she at least had breakfast  _ before _ going swimming. She’ll have missed her window for it, otherwise.”

The other two followed along with her, until the three of them came to the pool’s door, and found it decidedly  _ locked. _

“...” Coyle stared at the door, the necessary gears slowly turning in her head to process that the door was, in fact, locked.

“...”Pool open from 10am to 8pm...” Ninjara read on the nearby placard.

The three of them lay still again, and now Min Min could feel that  _ concern _ returning to her throat. She gave a careful look to Ninjara, and that’s all he needed.

White smoke clouded between Min Min and Coyle, as the latter turned to face the former. “You’re  _ sure _ she went swimming?”

“I-I...” Min Min stammered. She wasn’t even remotely sure - it had just seemed like an obvious conclusion, given Mechanica’s prior eagerness and the phone left by her bedside.

“ _ Was her swimsuit amongst her clothes? _ ” Coyle urged, an uncomfortably serious tone on her face and in her voice - one Min Min couldn’t help but compare to that of her own mother’s on a night where she had, at the age of four, ingested some raw pork without much thought.

‘ _ Are you  _ ** _sure_ ** _ it was cooked, Fae?’ _ She had asked, kneeling down to her level, in a manner rife with worry yet stable in composure.  _ ‘I’m not mad, you just need to tell me the truth. Okay? It’s important.’ _ Her mother must have known, of course, that there was no way her four year old could have cooked the missing pork belly cuts without a severe mess in the kitchen - or even severe  _ burns _ on her body. She’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been, so she lied to save face - and her mother  _ knew _ that, obviously. But part of her was hoping she’d be wrong, somehow. That maybe things were fine.

Min Min gulped, looking to the floor uneasily. This wasn’t really comparable to that - it  _ really _ wasn’t. She hadn’t checked on Mechanica’s clothes, so she didn’t know one way or the other when it came to the location of her swimsuit, and it could  _ very _ well have been gone from her suitcase and currently dressed over its owner as she happily floated around in the chlorinated water, the whole pool to herself for the morning. There was no underlying certainty here that her child had eaten a substantial amount of raw pork and there was no fear of trichinosis development -  _ it was different. _

...But it still felt the same.

“...She’s not around.” Ninjara answered, deathly seriously, as he poofed back to the other side of the door.

“ _ Check the changing rooms. _ ” Coyle insisted immediately.

“ _ I already did. _ ” He returned. “Both of them.  _ She’s not there. _ ”

Coyle turned back to Min Min, giving her that same look again. “We’ll check the coach.  _ Go check her clothes. _ ”

She had nodded in response, and then hurried back to the stairs they had just been past earlier.  _ Why _ did she feel so sick? Sure, Mechanica was unaccounted for, but they really didn’t have  _ that _ much reason to be concerned just yet - the coach was a  _ very _ likely place for her to have gone to! She’d probably just awoken and found she had left her Switch on the counter, and figured Springtron had already parked nearby as he’d been instructed to. She could just slip out for it real quick, maybe check the eShop real quick on the coach’s wifi, which she had already connected to... Maybe she’d stick around and play a quick game of Smash while she was there...

Min Min hopped up the final step and began power walking to the fourth room down - that way you stride when you  _ really _ need to get somewhere quickly, but you’re in denial about how quickly you want to get there.

...A part of Min Min did know why she was getting so concerned now. It had been something in the way Coyle looked at her - deeper than the elements she could compare to her mother, something less pronounced and more  _ subliminal _ . Somewhere in there she could sense that Coyle had  _ known _ something was wrong, or had felt it in the air somehow. And perhaps she had felt it too, to some degree. This wasn’t just a hiccup in their morning pans, no, this was  _ bigger. _

She stopped at the door and fumbled for the key, finding herself shaking a little as she aimed it to the keyhole.

...There had been a reason Coyle had asked her to check Mechanica’s clothes. They’d already determined that Mechanica was decidedly  _ not _ in the hotel’s swimming pool, after all. There was no more expectation of a lack of a swimsuit.

She swung the door open wide, making it reverberate against the wall of the room beside it, and hurried in. At the base of the bed lay Mechanica’s suitcase - a small pink and purple mix, vaguely themed in the style of her idol, though not officially.

Min Min gave a quick flick through the small pile of worn clothes resting beside it: a pair of dungarees and a thinly striped blue and white T-shirt. The clothes she had worn on the coach the previous day, including her undergarments.

She grabbed the zipper of the suitcase and opened it quickly, her heart pounding in her chest.

Her swimsuit lay at the very top of the pile, present and accounted for, in striking golden yellow with striped white and red at the top of the shorts and a sleek blue adorning the-

She swiped it aside without much regard, instead focusing on what else the suitcase held.

Next in line was a cute sky blue summer dress. Min Min could vaguely recall Mechanica mentioning plans to wear her summer dress for the first they'd arrive. The day that would come to be  _ today _ .

...But that memory didn’t matter much. There was every chance she could have decided against it. Picked out a  _ different  _ outfit.

Graphic tees, button-ups, long sleeves, short sleeves, denim and polo and linen and flannel...

She skipped back to the start and began to throw each item out into a pile as she went through them. She was shaking heavily now - her brow sweating and her heart thumping  _ hard _ in her chest. When the main pouch of the suitcase ran dry she began to empty the side pockets too.

...She came to the end of the suitcase, having emptied it, and put a hand to her mouth in an effort to help swallow down the building nausea.

There were no pyjamas to be found. Mechanica was still wearing them.


	4. Missing

Min Min returned down the stairs about six minutes later, having taken some time to breathe carefully and splash some water on her face. She was distressed now -  _ really _ distressed. This was now no longer a short detour in their plans. This was something  _ big _ now, and she had no idea what direction it’d take, or if there’d be a happy outcome, or even whether things would resolve  _ at all. _

She took a pause in the lobby, steadying herself with an ARM on the receptionist’s desk, trying to focus on her breathing as she awaited Coyle and Ninjara’s return from the coach. She had to steady herself now. She  _ had _ to. Being a nervous wreck would help nothing, so she  _ had _ to steady herself.

“...Ah.” Smiled Alice as she stepped out from the ‘staff only’ door behind the reception desk. “I suppose you’re turning in the keys? I-I hope you had a nice stay!” She smiled warmly, if a little sadly.

Min Min slowly and somewhat shaikly turned her head to the girl on the other side of the desk. She could see a lot of Ribbon GIrl in her - or at least a younger Ribbon Girl, before she worked on her self confidence more. “U-Um...” She stammered quietly, her throat remarkably dry. “H-Hey, uh... H-Have you seen my friend?” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, feeling her eyes getting watery. “Sh-She’s the small one, about th-this high...” She gave an example with her palm flat against the air at about where Mechanica stood.

Alice stared at her wide-eyed, unblinking and unmoving. She opened her mouth after a moment, if only slightly, but didn’t speak.

Min Min wiped her nose again, sniffling a little bit.

“...I-I...” Alice forced her mouth shut and gave an uneasy gulp. “ _ ...N-No. _ ” She muttered quietly and unwillingly. “I-I haven’t seen her, I-I’m...” She turned around quickly. “ _ I-I’m sorry.  _ A-And I hope she turns up. _ ” _ ”

Min Min watched, her eyes getting red, as the receptionist hurried back past the ‘staff only’ door without giving another glance. She had seemed to lose all colour the moment she was asked, the way one might when first being told of the loss of a parent.

The glass door at the front of the hotel quickly opened as Coyle marched through, followed closely behind by Ninjara, who - of the three of them - seemed to have much more composure.

“Ah.” Coyle nodded, almost with relief at seeing Min Min there waiting for them. “ _ Did you check her clothes? _ ”

Min Min nodded her head slowly, tears welled in her eyes, and a frog in her throat.

Coyle’s mouth puckered slightly as her back straightened. She had never asked Min Min about the pyjamas, but she understood perfectly the implication in Min Min’s eyes. “...Shit.” She muttered slowly, her gaze rapidly passing left and right in front of her, not focusing on anything in particular. “...Shit. Shit, shit,  _ fuck,  _ ** _SHIT_ ** _ . _ ” She slammed a fist down on the desk suddenly, her chest heaving up and down. “ _ Why the FUCK did we get her her own room?! _ ”

Min Min bit her lower lip. It didn’t do much to stop her rather potent shaking, but it felt supportive in some strange way.

“ _ ...O-Okay. _ ” Ninjara gulped, putting his hands up in an easing gesture. “L-Let’s all stay calm and-”

“ _ Shut the fuck up and go tell the others. _ ” Coyle spat angrily, pointing a sharp finger in the direction of the restaurant. His remarkable  _ composure _ sickened her.

Ninjara complied and, without another word, rushed off to get Misango and Springtron up to speed.

Coyle put her hands up to her face and pressed her fingers down hard. Min Min watched, a few tears streaming down her cheeks, as Coyle froze still in a blank and mindless stare at nothing in particular.

“...Wh-What do we  _ do _ ...?” Min Min sniffled quietly in a painfully heart-rendering tone, more in line with how one would expect Ribbon Girl to have reacted, rather than Min Min. She felt both glad that Ribbon Girl wasn’t here to see her like this and, at the same time, terribly wished she were here to lend her support.

“...I don’t know.” Coyle replied, finally, in the most defeated tone Min Min had ever heard come from that mouth. “ _ I just don’t know. _ ”

Min Min soured her face as she watched Coyle emptily give in to the same distress that had overtaken her. “...N-No...” She mumbled. “ _ ...NO... _ ” She ran her hand under her nose once more, her face now shaking with some degree of anger to it.

Coyle looked up at her with wet eyes, surprised to see Min Min so enraged, even if her face showed none of the surprised.

“ _ H-Here’s _ what we’re gonna do!” She sniffled. “W-W-We’re gonna  _ find _ whoever took her a-a-and we’re gonna-” Another sniffle. “A-And we’re gonna  _ get her BACK. _ ”

Coyle kept her face still where it was, meeting Min Min’s, but her eyes flicked downward. It had been entirely unspoken that there was a  _ who _ to blame for Mechanica’s disappearance. There was still, realistically,  _ every _ chance that Mechanica had just wandered off somewhere herself for some reason - but the two of them knew, deep down, that it was no longer an idea to entertain. 

Min Min stuck a finger out at the ‘staff only’ door behind the reception desk. “Th-That bitch is  _ hiding something. _ ” She spat through gritted teeth, still shaking like an incoming call. “Sh-She  _ knows something _ , I’m fucking  _ certain _ of it.”

Coyle began to nod slowly, then paused, then suddenly straightened her back. “ _ ...Okay. _ ” She looked down at Min Min with her head tilted back - a look that she had before, many a time, been called ‘crazy’ for. “ _ Let’s get our girl. _ ”

Min Min nodded rapidly, wiping her nose once more. She could feel her anger simmering down again - getting replaced back with the worry she had initially been drenched in. She was deathly aware that, had Coyle not been on this trip, she would have had no chance at all of mustering a long-lasting enough fire within her to keep her going long enough to resolve this. She’d have given in to the distress almost immediately and  _ wallowed _ in it, totally lost and scared, unable to do a  _ thing _ . But she had Coyle here now, and she knew Coyle could take charge the way she couldn’t. Coyle could burn this place down to the ground if she needed to, and all she had to do was back her up.

Coyle gave a hearty kick to the lock of the ‘staff only’ door, splintering it apart as the door itself swung open. Alice had locked it when she fled -  _ not the most innocent of moves, Alice. _

The room, however, was devoid of all life. Boxes of documents, spare room supplies, cleaning supplies, maintenance tools and lightbulbs... It was just your run-of-the-mill staff room.

The two head right through and up to the door at the other end of the room. This one bore a push-handle type of mechanism, and a green sign of a man above it. Unsurprisingly, it opened out to the hotel’s exterior.

Min Min stepped out and looked around. It had been her first view of the town in the light of day, and the lake encroaching on the hotel was far larger than she had first thought. The nearby street seemed to branch out in all sorts of ways the further on it went, and the several other buildings dotted around made it hard to really get a bearing of what path a young woman might take if she needed to run. Home, perhaps? Or to the store of a trusted owner?

Coyle had a more sensible idea, though. Alice had not seemed the type to hide, no, she had seemed the type to  _ seek help _ , and this side of the hotel bore one other door a little further down the wall.

Min Min and Coyle barged in through the door and found themselves in the hotel’s kitchen. Several eyes looked back at them in shock as they approached - all kitchen workers, save for one, whos gaze happened to seem the  _ wettest. _

The kitchen workers quietly stepped back a few paces, cautiously drawing some distance from the new arrivals, as if afraid they’d become casualties in the upcoming grease fire if they stayed too close. The only one not to budge even a  _ little _ happened to be the very same woman who had made her distaste for the group known the night before - _ the head chef with the rather burly build _ . Not only did she not flinch at the mere sight of them,  _ she actually locked her eyes on Coyle’s _ \- as if challenging her newfound domination of the room with her own  _ pre-existing _ domination of the room.

Coyle looked sharply at the woman until she and Min Min came to a stop a few feet ahead of them, at which point she instead flicked her eyes to the hotel’s designated  _ weak link. _ There, beside the chef, stood Alice - tears streaked down her face and white as a sheet. It would take less than a broken bone to get her to cooperate, but Coyle was more than willing to jump right to that.

“Alice.” She spoke clearly and dominatingly, her eyes brimming with a deep disdain. The very mention of her name made Alice twitch nervously as if she were standing on a tightrope above a bed of nails. “...I’d like to know where  _ the girl _ is.”

“ _ I think, _ ” began the chef, side stepping to put herself between Alice and Coyle. “ _ You were told to  _ ** _leave._ ** ”

Coyle’s mouth curved into something of a sick smile. “ _ We aren’t leaving.  _ ** _Without the girl._ ** ”

“ _ I don’t know what you’re talking about. _ ” The chef spat back, standing much taller than Coyle, giving her ample height to look down on her from.

“Ohhh, you make me  _ sick. _ ” Coyle grumbled through her teeth. “You know  _ full well _ what I’m talking about. You  _ all _ do!” She looked around the room at the other workers, who each seemed to silently be avoiding her gaze. “You’re all in the midst of some sick and twisted plot and...  _ Well... _ ” She smirked back up at the chef again. “ _ You really picked the wrong person to fuck with. _ ”

The woman kept her gaze locked down on Coyle’s, and didn’t present another word. Min Min could feel herself tightening her fists - the anger was building up in her again, because it was clear Coyle was  _ right. _ These  _ snakes  _ were very much aware of whatever plot hid behind this town’s curtains. And they were  _ compliant. _

“I’ll tell you  _ again. _ ” The chef shot back, sharp and hating. “ _ I don’t know what you’re talking about. _ ”

Coyle kept her glare for a moment, then flicked her eyes back to Alice. “And what about  _ you, _ blondie? Do  _ you _ know what I’m talking about?”

Alice shook in place, looking as if she were about to be sick - not unlike how Min Min herself had looked earlier, though riddled with much more  _ guilt. _

“...Alice would be  _ happy _ to assist in helping you find your  _ friend. _ ” The chef added casually with something of a slight smile, not looking at her fingers the way a person with normal arms might look at their nails - a common enough gesture from those with ARMS, despite what you’d expect. “Isn’t that right, Alice?”

Alice looked at her with a truly mortified expression, her eyes sunken and distressed.

The chef smirked at her, giving an almost flirtful look. “You could show them the security feeds, no?” She smiled. “Maybe this  _ missing girl _ might pop up somewhere.”

Alice froze for a moment, then ducked her head. “...Y-Yes, I-I  _ could _ ...” Her voice was deathly quiet and dry as a desert. “...I-If that would...  _ Help. _ ” 

“Great!” The chef grinned, facing Coyle once more. “Would  _ that _ help you out,  _ grandma? _ ”

Coyle glared back. “ _ ...Let’s see the tapes. _ ”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alice - accompanied by her guardian head chef - guided the two of them out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and right back to the front desk. She slipped behind it, stared at the monitor, and began to punch a few keys into the keyboard.

Coyle looked around. There were  _ two _ cameras in the lobby - right up in the corners of the room, mostly focused on the front door and reception desk, though one likely also captured the nearby seating area. Two angles of the same room... That’d be  _ perfect. _

“...Here we go...” Alice muttered in monotone, slowly turning the monitor to face the guests. “...This is of the second floor at two thirdty three in the morning...”

Min Min’s heart sank in her throat as she watched Mechanica’s door open from the inside. The missing girl - dressed in her missing greyish blue pyjamas - slowly left the room and let the door shut behind her.

“...And this is the view of the stairs...” Alice continued, tapping another key.

Mechanica slowly tredged her way down the rest of the hall, then quietly stepped down the flight of stairs one step at a time.

“...And then...” She coughed slightly, raising her voice a touch - which still wasn’t very loud. “...She passes through  _ here _ ...”

This feed was split into two, showing two different angles of the same scene, matching the placement of the two cameras above. Mechanica continued from the stairs, through the lobby, past the empty reception desk, and out of the front door.

Min Min began to feel sick again. This wasn’t right -  _ not at all. _ Why, in the ever-loving  _ hell, _ would Mechanica make this journey  _ entirely unguided? _ She had expected to see some man dragging her bound down the hall, or carrying her over his shoulder as he snuck past their doors. But no - Mechanica left _ on her own. _

“I guess that’s somethin’, then.” The chef pondered aloud, her ARMS folded at her chest. “Not sure where she was goin’ to but it doesn’t look like she was in a hurry.”

Coyle stared at the footage  _ intently, _ playing it over and over again with her finger on the arrow keys.  _ How? _ Th-this didn’t add up  _ at all! _

“...We don’t have outside cameras...” Alice mumbled tiredly from behind the desk, still facing the floor. “...We get pretty bad rain showers often, and the security company didn’t have a waterproof model compatible with the software...” She spoke almost as if reading from a script that had been scribbled into the floor tiles with permanent marker.

Min Min turned to watch Coyle, for some sort of guidance on what they were watching. To her it looked pretty realistic - like it was really Mechanica leaving her room and exiting the hotel on her own accord. But Coyle, Min Min knew, was  _ much _ more familiar with technology.  _ Including video editing. _ And if there was one person among them who could spot some doctored footage, it’d be her.

...But the truth was that the footage  _ wasn’t _ doctored. There was no sign of splicing or masking or CG work in the slightest, even down to the small details like Mechanica’s shadow casting on the walls as she walked by or her reflection in the metal of the light fixtures or the shine of the floor tiles in the lobby. It could, perhaps, have been a  _ body double _ \- the video quality was nothing to write home about, for sure. But that just didn’t sit well with her... No, this  _ was _ Mechanica. She was certain of it.

“And you guys don’t have any idea where she coulda gone...?” The chef asked, sounding concerned despite her prior stiffness to them.

Coyle replayed the footage one last time, then sighed. “...Why the  _ hell _ would she have left on her own...” She muttered, mostly to herself.

Min Min looked down, now aware of Coyle’s conclusion on the tape’s legitimacy. “...Our coach was broken down further down the road.” She answered, her throat dry. “I-I guess she could have gone to check on it in the middle of the night...” Why she would do that, of course, was still a complete and total mystery.

“...You think someone might have snatched her on her way there?” The chef continued, now sounding almost motherly - but not in the way that Coyle had earlier. In more of a  _ suggestive _ way. “We get all sorts on that road, just passing through. And some people out there, well, they see an  _ opportunity  _ and... Well.” She coughed, her implication well understood.

Min Min felt sick again. She didn’t like that idea one bit - the thought that Mechanica could have somehow been  _ abducted _ in the middle of the night by a total stranger, in an event that didn’t have even a  _ single _ witness. Then she could be  _ anywhere _ by now.

“...There’s a town a good few miles further down the road called Little Loneway.” The chef sighed. “If people don’t stop the night  _ here _ they almost certainly stop  _ there,  _ even if it’s just for gas. I’ve got a few friends workin’ down there so I could put in a few phone calls and see if they’ve noticed any girl like the one you’re describing.” She looked at Min Min eye-to-eye, apologetically. “It’s all I can really do to help, I’m afraid.”

Coyle shut her eyes. She could feel that fire in her going out again, slowly being replaced with that overwhelming feeling of  _ defeat. _ She had been so sure someone had lured her out of here - and that the hotel staff were in on it somehow - that this footage just completely  _ blindsided _ her. And now nothing made sense at all. Even the chef, queen bitch she had been, was now sounding concerned and offering her help. Had she really imagined all the sketchiness? That whole feeling that the locals were  _ hiding _ something?

“So... Nothing else got caught on camera, right?” Min Min mumbled, her eyes starting to get crustily dry from this break after her crying. “L-Like... I dunno...” She sniffled and wiped her nose. “...Like no other people came in during the night? O-Or left?”

Alice weakly pointed a finger to the lower half of the screen, where a timeline dotted with yellow marks lay. “...The cameras pick up ‘unique’ parts of the video, where something significant happens. After the last guest leaves at around eleven...” She sighed, resignedly. “...The only other notable moment, aside from your friend, is when your robot man person comes in at five forty and he sits in the lobby until your other friend meets him for breakfast...”

She nodded slowly, then paused. “...Coyle?” Min Min asked hoarsely, feeling cold and lost once again.

Coyle stood up straight, though it wasn’t a confident stance. “...She left the hotel.” She shrugged weakly. “I guess we go out there and look around for a bit. See if anyone might have spotted her, or something...”

Min Min nodded again and went to follow Coyle out of the hotel and into the bright sunlight outside, but stopped friendly to offer a weak ‘thank you’ to the two hotel workers. The chef nodded faithfully, welcoming the gratitude, but Alice, comparatively, continued to avoid her gaze.


	5. Searching

“Oh, _ hey! _ ” Ninjara gasped, running up to the two of them as they exited the hotel. “You guys found anything?! We’re having ‘Tron do some sorta _ deep search. _”

Coyle peered ahead at her mechanica creation, who seemed to be doing all sorts of weird bleeps and bloops and whirrs and crunks, in the direction of the hotel. “...Mechanica left at some point in the night. She left _ on her own _ \- not taken or guided or seemingly persuaded by another person.”

“_ Wh-What...? _ ” Ninjara asked, an eyebrow raised. “...And in the middle of the night?! _ Why would she do that?! _”

“We dunno...” Min Min mumbled, feeling _ so _ drained - despite her prior rest and feeding. “We think she coulda gone back to the coach for something.” She looked up at Springtron. “...You’ve not seen her, right?”

“Oh, uh, I already asked him.” Ninjara answered for the mechanical man, who seemed preoccupied with his scan. “...He shook his head.”

“Figured.” Coyle mumbled. “Where’s the shaman?”

Ninjara nodded over to a nearby parking space, where Misango had lowered himself cross legged. 

“Oh _ great. _ ” She groaned. “That sure is _ helpful. _”

“So...” Min Min sniffled slightly, her nose beginning to dry. “Do we search around town, I-I guess?”

Coyle nodded. “It’s the best we can do. Split up, speak to the locals, and report any major discoveries immediately.”

Min Min and Ninjara both nodded, synchronized, while Springtron gave a loud _ ding! _

“...Oh. You’re finished?” She asked, raising an eyebrow to him as he turned to face them all again. “What did you find? Is Mechanica still in the hotel?”

Springtron shook his head.

She had figured as much already, but she supposed further confirmation didn’t hurt.

“Any notable traces of her in the hotel other than what we’ve already accounted for - her bag, her clothes, and so on...?”

Another head shake.

“Alright, well, she apparently left sometime last night, _ possibly _ to go to the coach for something. Go check areas the areas between here and where it had broken down and see if you pick up any more traces, then report back to me.”

Springtron nodded, turned, and headed off down the long road they had walked down to get here in the first place - making beeps and whirrs along the way.

“..._ Okay. _” Coyle sighed. “We’ll split up and-”

“Coyle.”

Coyle rolled her eyes and, with a groan, turned around to face Misango. “Do you have anything _ helpful _ to share?”

“I have made contact with Misanga in search of guidance in finding Mechanica.” He responded, deathly serious.

“Okay. _ And...? _”

“...I am _ uncertain _ of a spiritual occurrence in her disappearance. This clouds the realm of sight Misanga has through me, and thus limits what can be shown. Only when I am certain of what we are dealing with will I be of any _ holy _ assistance.”

Coyle pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. “Misango what the _ shit _ does any of that mean?”

“...I am unsure if her disappearance is due to something _ spiritual _ \- such as a wraith or demon - or due to something _ mundane _ \- such as an ordinary human opportunist. If I can go on to confirm that something spiritual _ is _ at large, I will _ then _ be able to ascertain _ what _ spirit it is and help prepare a countermeasure for it.”

She took a long, deep, drawn-out inhale, then slowly exhaled it through her nose. “...And if it _ is _ an _ ’ordinary’ _ human opportunist? Will your funny little god man help with _ that _ at all?”

“...Then Misanga will not be able to provide any further assistance beyond empowering my-”

“_ THEN- _ ” Coyle interrupted sharply, having run out of patience. “ _ SHUT THE _ ** _HELL_ ** _ UP ABOUT YOUR MISANGAN BULLSHIT AND ACTUALLY HELP US.” _

Misango blinked at her, then nodded. “I will be of assistance where I can.”

“Good _ god.” _ She sighed deeply. “Right, let’s stop wasting time already. _ Split up and search, talk to locals, so on so forth. _”

They each nodded, and splintered off in different directions.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hotel was right at the forefront of the town, just off the long quiet road they had been on less than twelve hours before, acting almost like the front porch to the town itself. And the town, it seemed, was only for those who’d take their shoes off at the porch - that is to say, for those looking to _ stay _ in Redwood, and not just pass through - and the general vibe they’d been given by the locals, up to this point, was that their feet would be tracking in mud, shoes or not. They weren’t welcome here, and that wasn’t something that’d be changing any time soon.

“...Okay, well...” Min Min sighed, turning for the door she had just come through. “...Thanks anyway...” She muttered obscenities quietly under her breath as she left the small ‘mom-and-pop’ sandwich shop. Another set of locals who’d not seen hide nor hair of Mechanica, and another who had told her so _ rather rudely. _

What was _ with _ this town? They’d lost an innocent little girl - a _ child _ \- and no one seemed to care. Hell, they even seemed _ bothered _ when asked about it. Where’s the humanity?!

She turned back to the street she had just combed through. She tried approaching them sweetly, and seriously, and saddened, and angrily... Nothing played out in her favour, no matter _ what _ she tried. Either they looked down on her or they looked genuinely sorry for her, but none of them offered her any actual _ help. _ Hell, on at least two occasions now, _ she’d been shouted at the get the hell out! _Can you believe that?

...As far as shopping districts go, it had just about everything you could ask for, all right here on your doorstep. It was all _ pretty _ and _ clean _ and _ inexpensive _ . Isn’t that perfect? Isn’t that just _ peachy? _ This town was so goddamn nice, she just about figured she’d probably end up _ moving _ here at some point in the future - _ if the locals hadn’t been so fucking horrific. _

She sat down on the curb for a moment, putting her hands to her head. She had run out of tears long ago, and now she just felt empty inside. All she wanted was her friend back. They could forget about this town and never return, if they just got to leave with Mechanica. Was that so much to ask? Was it _ really? _

...She did have more tears in her, it seemed. They streaked down her cheeks slowly and delicately, making her nose run again. Where would she look _ now? _ She’d gone through every storefront in the neighbourhood and came back with _ nothing. _ Springtron was scanning the roads, Ninjara was checking from high up, Misango was checking through the forest. Hell, Coyle was going _ door to door. _ What else could they _ do? _

More and more it seemed like they’d have to just face the music. That Mechanca had been taken by _ someone _ , for _ some _ reason, and was long out of Redwood by now. They couldn’t search the whole planet - they could sure as hell _ try _, but they’d still likely never find her.

...What was she going to tell Ribbon Girl? _ God, _ what a horrific thought that was. She’d have to call up Ribbon Girl and explain that Mechanica had never come down for breakfast, and then they’d have to tell all the other ARMS League fighters too. _ And _ the whole world.

She had _ fans. _ People who looked up to her and loved her. Who would break the news to _ them? _ Maybe it’d boost the numbers looking for her, sure, but imagine the wave of _ heartbreak _ across the globe. And could _ she _ keep ARMS fighting, after this? Knowing that Mechanica would never again join them for it? She wasn’t sure if Ribbon Girl could or would. Or Coyle, for that matter.

Her tears had stopped again, despite the wallowing in her head. She had truly run out now - it’d take some time for her tear ducts to refill, she supposed.

With tired apathy she got back to her feet and headed back for the hotel. No one had called to say they’d found anything, the way she’d be sure they would if they _ had _ found anything, and no matter how many times she checked her phone for a missed call nothing changed that. Maybe, if they were _ really _ lucky, then Misango might have found something. He wouldn’t have phoned them, after all. Was that something worth holding onto? That thin sliver of hope? Min Min wasn’t much sure anymore.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ninjara drummed his fingertips on the side of his ARM as he watched the lake. He’d really begun to feel Redwood’s _ eyes _ staring back at the five of them - urging them to hurry up and leave, to save themselves having to even think of them any longer. How charming.

He shut his eyes, figuring that he could, at least for just a moment, make an attempt as _ examining _ himself. Ninjara wasn’t all that in touch with his own emotions, and he sure as hell didn’t like to show them around other people. He could tell, easily enough, when he was feeling _ angry _ or _ frustrated _ or _ tired _ or _ embarrassed. _ But understanding what it meant for him to be happy, for example, was something he wasn’t quite tuned to.

Sure, he could tell when he was enjoying something! ...But was that all it took to be _ happy? _ What if that moment was fleeting, like he’d only smiled because he’d found back an extra five dollars he’d forgotten about in the pocket of his jacket or something? Did _ that _ count? Or was _ happy _ not something so quick, but rather a long-term overall _ mood? _ It was these things he didn’t understand about emotion, and it’s probably why he usually didn’t _ feel _very happy. He wasn’t really sure what it felt like.

...But here he was now, stood in an unknown town, on his own, looking out at a lake. And he was pretty sure he’d never see his friend again.

So. Was this... _ Sadness? _ Both Coyle and Min Min had been crying - it was clear from their eyes, _ especially _ with Min Min. But he hadn’t been crying. He never really cried much, so perhaps that wasn’t a good indicator, but...

He sighed. What _ was _ he feeling right now? He never really bonded _ that _ closely to Mechanica, the way she had to Coyle, and Min Min, and Ribbon Girl, and Springtron... But he could recall a handful of meaningful moments with her, still. And it hurt to think of those moments right now - he found himself forcibly changing the subject in his head whenever he tried to, and when he tried to consider the possibility that they may never see Mechanica again...

...Well, he could consider that. He didn’t shy away from the thought out of fear. He found himself considering how the various other fighters might take it, how the public at large would, how things would never truly be the same again... And he could see himself consoling the likes of Ribbon Girl, Min Min, Spring Man, Kid Cobra-

_ Ugh. _ See, _ this is what he hated about himself! _ He never pictured _ himself _ needing support, or a shoulder to cry on, or finding himself welling with tears at a sudden memory reemerging in his head that’d bring it all back - no, he always saw himself being the _ hero! _ Patting backs and handing out tissues, solving _ all _ the problems! _ Get real. _

...His heart hadn’t felt right since poofing into the hotel’s pool room and finding it silently empty. It had been thumping off-beat, like a little frog with a limp in his chest cavity, jumping wrong with each hop. He could picture himself hugging Ribbon Girl and telling her things would be alright, and he didn’t shy away from that thought at all - but picturing himself in the coach, finally getting ready to leave Redwood _ without _ Mechanica, and never knowing what truly happened to her... _ That _ was a thought that made him uncomfortable. He could imagine how his heart would be beating if it got to that point and it scared him more than anything possibly ever had before. That _ sickening _ feeling he’d have in his chest, that probably wouldn’t leave for _ weeks, _ and would be remembered clear as day for the rest of his life.

“...Hey.” Min Min mumbled, approaching him from behind.

He opened his eyes and snapped the thought out of his mind as quickly as he could, locking it away in a deep dark place he’d label ‘do not think about again’. “O-Oh, uh, _ hey. _” He sighed, turning to her. “...Any luck with the shops?”

Min Min slowly shook her head, her eyes still glossy. “See anything from above?”

“...Nothing.” He looked up at the tree tops, then spread his gaze around to the nearby buildings. “I tried every vantage point I could, sometimes several times in the same spot. I jumped down to check a few things closer at times, but it still all came up empty handed in the end.”

She nodded slowly, having expected as much. “...What you doin’ out here? Just waiting for the others too, or...?”

He scratched the back of his neck, looking over at the lake once more. “...Springtron finished assessing the road - nothing there either, for the record - so when he and I caught up again, I...” He paused, a little uneasy. “...I asked him to check the lake.”

“The lake...?” She repeated, looking at him in confusing.

He kept his eyes to the wide and tranquil lake ahead of them, choosing not to meet Min Min’s. “...He’s walking around down there now. _ Looking. _ ” The water seemed eerily still. Almost _ wrong. _ “...Apparently a scan from the surface wasn’t enough - water ripples confusing sensors or something, probably. That’s what I got, at least. You know how he doesn’t exactly _ talk _ to us, and all.”

She blinked at him. “...Why does he need to check the bottom of the lake?”

He paused, then finally looked back at her. Her face was uneasy and utterly heartbreaking to see like this, but he wasn’t going to lie to her. Nor was he going to let her stay in _ denial. _ “Min...”

“_ Wh-What? _ ” She stammered, almost _ angry. _

“...We have to be _ realistic. _”

She puckered her face, as if ready to throw up. “_ W-Well why would be be down there?! _ ” She grunted. “...I-I mean, _ I get... That. _ B-But, _ realistically _ , i-it’s not like we have any _ specific _ reason to think _ that... _”

“Min.” He repeated, a little quietly. He considered now that, while his inability to express emotions all too well was often a crutch, his reliability in stressful situations like this was also something of a gift. _ Someone _ had to remain level headed, after all. “...She wanted to go _ swimming. _”

Min Min frozen, then quietly turned her attention to the vast lake. She felt sick to her stomach - the same way she had when she went through Mechanica’s clothes. If she could wake up right now and start today over in properly she’d do so in a _ heartbeat. _ Hell, she’d even take waking up two weeks back! Or a _ month. _ She’d repeat her whole ARMS career if it meant undoing what this day had done.

Ninjara put a hand to her shoulder and joined her in watching the lake. “I hope we find her, Min. _ Alive, _ I mean.” He could feel that awkward beat in his heart thumping away. “...She still has _ so _ far to go.”

Min Min could feel her bottom lip curling. Were her tear ducts done recharging? _ That didn’t take very long. _

...A small set of bubbles rose to the surface, not all too far out from where they stood. It caught their attention immediately and they stared wide-eyed for a moment. Was Springtron resurfacing...? _ If he hadn’t found anything then they’d still have a chance! _ ...Or he could resurface cradling a corpse in his ARMS. This was a tense moment.

They watched with bated breath for a metal swirl to peek out from the water, followed by glaring blue light bulbs lighting up the ripples as he trudged out... But he didn’t emerge. Instead, a small black box of some sort floated to the surface, gently bobbing in place like a rubber duck.

“...Oh _ shit. _” Min Min mumbled, eyes wide, before dashing toward the edge of the lake.

Ninjara followed closely, confused and concerned. “Wh-What is it?” He watched as Min Min extended an ARM and took it from the lake. “Was it Mechanica’s?!”

“No, dude!” She groaned, looking it over in her hands, before showing it to him. “It’s Springtron’s _ thing. _ Like the really hard to destroy _ thing _ that stores all his memories and junk - _ he spits it out when his body gets too damaged. _”

Ninjara blinked. “...He-” He put a hand to his mouth, looking at the spot where it had floated up. “Wait, _ shit, _so Springtron’s not coming back up?!”

Min Min pulled at her hair. “_ Godddd dammnnnnn itttttt... _ ” She groaned widely, before giving a deep sigh. “ _ ...Water and electricity. _ Never a good mix. Dirty water, at that.”

“Th-Then why did he even go down there if it was gonna break him?!” Ninjara pleaded, now concerned that he might get a beating from Coyle for this.

“He probably overestimated what he could take, or something...” Min Min sighed again. “...I guess I’ll go find Coyle and give her the _ thing. _” She held it up, shaking it slightly, which caused little droplets to fall from it. “She might have some compatible something or other in the coach that she can still talk to him through, before he gets a full new body. Maybe we’ll at least be able to find if he saw anything down there...”

Ninjara nodded, feeling embarrassed - an emotion he was very familiar with. “T-Tell her I didn’t _ mean _ to break him, and all.”

“S’alright, i’ve got your back.” She smiled weakly, before turning and heading off. “See ya soon...”

He put his hand to his face and sighed. _ Smooth move, dummy. _ Rather than staying at the lake, he instead poofed his way up to a treetop and began to look again - it’s the least he could do now, given that they were one man down.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Redwood was a peculiar little town. It was small and quaint and cosy and clean, yet it had an undeniable _ oddness _ to it - something in the air that just made it feel _ off _ , y’know? In that one way where the general feel of the place gives the impression that, at any moment, something could suddenly click in your head and you’d finally realize just what’s been feeling _ off _ this whole time. Maybe the roads were too deep, or the homes all lacked curtains, or the grass forever stayed just a little too freshly mowed. Coyle wasn’t sure what it’d be - it hadn’t _ clicked _ yet for her. But it would soon, she _ knew _ it. It was hiding in plain sight, and all it would take was a bit more time.

“Well I’m afraid I don’t know _ anything _ about that, dearie!” A cute little old lady replied from the space between her front door and its doorway. “I really hope you find your daughter - _ I can’t imagine what you must be feeling. _”

“No kidding...” Coyle sighed, feeling ever more defeated, as she walked back to the empty road this set of homes sat beside. That was another whole neighbourhood checked, and once again it was all fruitless.

“Hey, _ Coyle! _” Min Min called out, catching up to her from behind.

“...Ah.” She paused for a moment, turned to face her, then nodded, then turned back and continued walking on her way - soon followed by Min Min, who then began to walk beside her. “Any news?”

“Nothing from the shopping district. People didn’t even seem to care.” She grumbled.

“Much the same here.” Coyle agreed. “Occasionally there’s someone a little nicer - I just had a woman invite me in for tea, actually. Old lady, probably about eighty or ninety. Had _ cactus _ ARMS, which really isn’t something you see every day. Can’t imagine she gets many cuddles.”

“You went in for tea?” Min Min asked for clarity. Coyle was seeming a lot more level headed now, at least.

“No no, she only offered.” She corrected tiredly. “Said her son used to have tea with her on Thursdays but then he and his missus moved out of town. A kid on the way, apparently. Lucky them.” She kicked a rock from the road absentmindedly. “One child lost, one child born. ‘_ That’s nature for you’, _ or some shit.”

“Sounds like you got her life history.”

“Pretty much. Old ladies tend to overshare.” She was about to connect this to a story of when she had met Brass’s mother, but then thought that might be oversharing, and she didn’t want to see old herself. “_ Anyyyyway _. Still no Mechanica...”

“...Hey, um...” Min Min sighed. “...I met up with Ninjara at the lake, and-”

“Did he find anything?” She threw in, cutting her off.

“O-Oh... No, ‘fraid not.” She bit her lip.

“What about Springtron, is he done with his scans?”

Min Min felt the box in her palm, running her fingers over it. “Y-Yeahhh, and he didn’t find anything either.”

Coyle paused in place, then turned to her. “He couldn’t find any signed of Mechanica out on the road...?”

“Ninjara said that’s what he told him. Or _ implied _ at him, at least.”

“...Hm.” Coyle thought quietly, starting to walk again. “That _ could _ be a good sign, then. Any traces of her out there on the road would have to be from _ after _ the rain stopped - _ which is after we arrived at the hotel _ \- because the rain would otherwise have washed away the ‘scent’.”

Min Min wasn’t really sure how such a scan _ worked, _ but the image Coyle gave did make it out to be more animalistic than technological. That probably wasn’t entirely right, though.

“...So either he’d find some trace of her or he’d find _ none _ , which’d mean she _ didn’t _ head out there in the night. That’s a _ good _ sign.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Min Min thought. But then if Mechanica _ didn’t _ head out to the coach, where _ did _ she go? And _ why? _ ...Suddenly she remembered the box in her hand.

“I’m really not getting anywhere with these housecalls. We should _ probably _rendezvous with the others and set out a new plan.

“...Heyyyy, _ Coyle? _ ” Min Min began, cautiously. “...When Springtron finished with the road, Ninjara thought it’d be a good idea to... Uh...” She bit her lip. “...He thought it might be a good idea to have him check _ the lake. _”

Coyle went a shade paler. “...I was intending to command him to do just that.” She blinked. “_ ...And how did that go? _”

Min Min took great relief in not getting a scolding for the idea alone - something that Ninjara would then later have to get tenfold. “Well, uh... _ Not great. _” She then held up the box to be within Coyle’s line of sight.

Some _ relief _ washed over Coyle’s face for a moment - likely because hearing ‘not great’ had made her fear _ the worst, _ and this wasn’t quite as bad. “...I always meant to make him waterproof.” She took the box from Min Min. “I guess that’ll be our gift to this stupid town - _ a load of scrap metal at the bottom of their lake. _ He’ll still work if they get him some new batteries and clear out some of the _ gunk... _ Though I guess they’d still need the box.”

“Coyle...” Min Min began. “...Do you think he might have seen anything down there? L-Like, can you still check?”

“I doubt he saw much of interest.” Coyle answered quickly. “He’d have tripped a signal to me if he had and I’ve got _ nothing. _”

It might not have ruled out the possibility that she’d be down there, but it at least felt reassuring to some degree. “...So what now? Search _ other _parts of the town, or...?”

“...I don’t know.” She sighed, before bringing herself to a complete stop in the middle of the empty street. “...God, I just...” She sighed again, deeper. “...I’m at a loss here, Min.”

Min Min put a hand on her large spherical shoulder, comfortingly.

“We’ve already torn through this town _ so much... _ ” She stared into nothingness, feeling so _ unbelievably _ drained. “What more can we do than just _ search more? _”

Their other option, of course, was to call it quits and drive away - but neither of them wanted to entertain that idea, even for a second. “W-Well, maybe it’d be worth making some phone calls...? I-I mean maybe we can get some ARMS Lab people to drive down here and help look, or something?”

Coyle nodded slowly. “...That might be a good idea. I can have them bring some better tools, too. Fuller, more thorough scans.” She felt somewhat grateful to Min Min for the suggestion. “...They’d take a _ while _ to get here, but it’d still be a huge help.”

“The sooner we call them, the sooner they can arrive.” She nodded back, thoughtfully.

Coyle sighed. “...Let’s get back to the hotel for now. I’m so lightheaded, I just...” She put a hand to her forehead. “_ ...I could really sit down. _” Her inner voice called this a sign of her age catching up with her - but she knew deep down it was the distress that was doing it. She felt like her own daughter had been taken from her bed, and in many ways that’s exactly what had happened.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m _ really _ sorry for what you’re going through.” Alice, the dainty little receptionist, softly remarked in a manner that felt rather _ rehearsed. _ “I promise if we see or hear anything here we’ll call you right away!”

“...Thanks...” Min Min sighed, exhausted. “We’re just gonna take a bit of a break and then we’ll keep looking.”

Alice seemed to pause. “Th-That’s fine...” She smiled fakely after a moment. “T-Take as long as you like! ...Th-Though we don’t have any rooms free for tonight, s-so I’m afraid I can’t book you in for any longer o-or anything...” It didn’t really occur to Min Min at the time, but this was almost certainly a lie - the hotel had been _ deserted _ the night before, after all. She was most likely just trying to get rid of them.

“...Can we get some water?” Min Min asked softly, looking over her shoulder to where Ninjara and Coyle sat. “I think we’re all a little... _ Broken... _”

Alice frowned a rather genuine frown, as if she really truly felt sorry for them. “...I can get you some water, yeah...” She left the reception desk and made way to the kitchen, but paused before leaving the lobby. “...I-I really _ am _ sorry for you all.”

Min Min took a seat beside Coyle. “We’ll take a few minutes then call out for some ARMS Lab folks, I guess.”

Coyle nodded in agreement, her eyes unfocused to the floor. “...Maybe I’ll call Brass, too. He’s got connections, so maybe there’s some way he can help...” She knew full well that part of her just wanted the support, though. Brass was always rather good at that. He knew how to make people feel safe.

“...I suppose I should all Ribbon Girl, too.” Min Min mumbled, absentmindedly counting the little speckles in the tile directly ahead of her seat. “It’s not right to keep it from her like this. I don’t want her finding out through someone else first, a-and all...”

Coyle pat her on the back. “We’ll make it through this. Let’s just-”

Ninjara gasped sharply, his heart skipping a beat or two in his chest, and he got right to his feet - just standing there in place as he stared ahead. Coyle and Min Min jerked their heads up quickly, wondering what the commotion was, and then froze up too.

What they saw ahead of them felt like some sort of _ glitch _ . Like it could never have _ logically _ happened. If this had been a movie they’d have decried it as a cheap twist, like they didn’t know how to end the story so they just threw in whatever came to mind first.

But they really weren’t complaining.

There, stood in the hotel’s doorway in her pale blue pyjamas, stood the very girl they thought they’d never see again - a little dazed perhaps, _ but alive and well. _


	6. Found

“ _ Ohhhhhhhhhhmygodddddd! _ ” Coyle screeched out, almost falling out of her chair as she launched forward to embrace Mechanica in a massive hug. “ _ Ohhhmygod, darling, you’re  _ _SAFE!_ ”

“ _ H-Hey, c’mon! _ ” She giggled, a little embarrassed.

Min Min sat frozen and wide-eyed on the lobby’s sofa. Was this a dream? Was this just a mirage or an illusion, or her mind otherwise just playing some sort of sick trick on her?!

Ninjara leant forward and put his hands over his mouth, exhaling deeply into them as he bounced his leg rapidly like a student nervous for a test. This was, he figured, his way of dealing with  _ relief. _ He had been more drained than he’d realized, and he had to exert his newfound energy somehow before it exploded him into a thousand pieces.

“Where on  _ earth _ have you  _ been?! _ ” Coyle cried, still wrapped tightly around the young girl. “We were  _ so _ worried! We looked  _ everywhere! _ ”

“Just about everywhere, at least...” Min Min smiled nervously, getting to her feet. She found her stance unexpectedly shaky. They  _ had _ checked all over town, after all. Even from high above and with fancy Springtron scans.  _ How had they missed her?! _

“I-I wish I could tell you!” Mechanica smiled uneasily. “I don’t really  _ know _ , I’m afraid.”

“...You don’t know?” Min Min blinked at her.

She paused, her jaw open a moment, as if unsure of what to say. “W-Well...” She looked down. “...I-I don’t know. I’d rather not dwell on it.”

“The  _ important _ thing,” Coyle sniffled, finally pulling back a bit from Mechanica’s body - though still keeping her hands to her shoulders. “Is that you’re  _ here. _ A-And you’re  _ safe. _ ”

“R-Right!” Mechanica smiled softly. “I’m sorry for making you guys worry so much.”

“I  _ knew _ everythin’ would be fine!” Ninjara grinned, finally getting to his feet with full-blown confidence. “We’re down one Springtron but there’s no long term harm done, eh? We can put this mess behind us.”

Mechanica nodded happily, but Coyle had other matters on her mind. “Mechanica,  _ dear, _ ” She held her hand to her wrinkling nose, trying to breathe slowly through her mouth. “...You  _ stink! _ Did you spend the night in a dumpster or something?!”

She laughed uneasily, shrugging her shoulders.

“...Right, well, you go take a good warm shower and get some fresh clothes on. Then we can get going.”

“I-I’d rather we just leave  _ now, _ i-if that’s okay?” She butted in. “The sooner the better, a-and all.”

Coyle blinked. “Dear, I know you’re  _ excited, _ but you  _ reek. _ ” She tried a bit of a soft tone here - no need to embarrass the poor girl, after all. “It’ll take a moment for us to gather our things, so you might as well shower off first. You’ll be perfectly safe, I promise!”

“_N..._ _No._” She _insisted_ again.

Min Min continued to watch in silence. This was  _ off _ . This was  _ really _ off. How could it be this easy to get Mechanica back?!  _ They had searched  _ ** _everywhere._ ** Even Coyle’s little remark about her hiding out in a dumpster -  _ they had checked in the dumpsters, _ as crazy as that had sounded at the time. How could Mechanica have evaded them that whole time? And why couldn’t she remember anything now? ...This  _ was _ weird, right?! Was it just her who noticed how weird this all felt?!

Coyle frowned slightly. “Mechanica...” She sighed, biting her lip. “ _ ...Alright, _ well I guess I’m eager to get out of this town too.”

“Works for me.” Ninjara shrugged. “We’ll have to wait for ‘Sango but I can’t imagine he’ll be much longer. Dude really needs to get a watch, though.”

“No kidding.” Coyle mumbled through a small groan, as she got to feet again and subconsciously wiped her hands across her thighs in the hopes it’d get Mechanica’s  _ smell _ out. “Guess we’ll get our bags in the meantime.”

Coyle turned toward the stairway and then paused, something - or  _ someone _ \- catching her eye. Ninjara then turned too, followed shortly by the still silent Min Min.

...Alice had returned with a pitcher of water, which she held firmly in front of her waist, supporting it with two hands. She was frozen still, eyes locked  _ directly _ on Mechanica, with some horrified look in her glare.

“Ah!” Coyle smirked. “You’re back. Well, good news!”

Alice slowly pulled her eyes away from Mechanica - who was smiling at her - and carefully brought them toward Coyle’s. She lay silent still, for a moment at least, as her mouth and throat quivered, almost as if she were ready to be sick at any moment. “...I-I’m happy for you...” She got out quickly, looking away as she hurriedly set the pitcher of water on the reception desk. “You can take your things and go. You won’t be charged for the stay.” She seemed to be hurrying. “Just  _ p-please _ go.” She had turned and began to leave back the way she had came even before she had finished speaking, and as she left her hand seemed to press against her mouth - again, as if in an effort to avoid being sick.

Coyle glared at where the young woman had stood. “...Weirdo.”

“Sums up everyone in this town, right?” Ninjara agreed.

“Mm.” Mechanica nodded, before flicking her eyes quickly toward Min Min, a soft smile still on her face.

Min Min looked back at her uneasily. Her gaze had been dropped on Alice’s interruption, but her mind hadn’t really wandered at all. If anything, Alice’s  _ sickened _ demeanor had only made her feel  _ more _ uneasy.

“ _ Right then. _ ” Coyle began, clapping her hands together confidently. “Ninjara and Min Min -  _ you two go collect our bags _ . I’ll go with Mechanica and start the coach up. We can leave once Misango returns. Sound good?”

Ninjara gave a slick thumbs up in equal confidence.

Coyle awaited Min Min’s response, flicking her eyes back to her anticipating a similarly enthusiastic conformation - or at least some groan about having to lug the bags around. “...Min?”

_ This. Wasn’t. Right. _ It was just too simple, too  _ easy. _ It didn’t add up correctly at all, like they’d missed a few steps in between, or skipped to the last page without reading the book linearly.

It gave her a weighty pit in her stomach, reminiscent of when, in her youth, her mother would simply say “ _ Alright then. _ ” when she denied doing something bad like drawing on the walls or ‘painting’ the car silver with a rock as her brush. It wasn’t like the truly fearful reaction she had seen on her mother at other times - like she had relieved earlier that morning, in fact - no, this was something entirely different: a feeling that she had gotten away with something just a  _ little _ too easily, as if there were unforeseen repercussions left to come and she’d be totally unprepared for them. All a part of the  _ trap. _

And it  _ had _ been a trap. Her mother had seen through her young lies without even needing to try, and she’d go on to face those unforeseen repercussions later that night - usually in the form of doing handwritten lines on what she did wrong and how she’d never do it again, followed by further lines about how _ lying was wrong. _ She hated having to write lines, even if it  _ did _ later give her rather nice handwriting, but that ‘too easy’ pit in her stomach had always been the worst part. She never felt  _ satisfaction _ in seemingly getting away with her lies, like her parents presumably assumed she did. Just a mixture of  _ guilt _ and a feeling in the back of her throat that she was walking right into a trap. And that’s what she felt now.  _ A trap. _

...She never  _ did _ learn to stop lying, though. Even though she  _ knew _ it’d made things easier for her in the long run. Even though she  _ knew _ it’d help her avoid that pit in her stomach. Perhaps, she figured, she had just been a bad daughter. Not that that was true, really - she had otherwise been pretty well behaved, especially in her teen years. She cared for both her parents very dearly, and spent quite a chunk of time with them at the family restaurant.

On reflection, that feeling from earlier - that horrid look of  _ parental fear _ on Coyle’s face - had reminded her of her mother in a way that made her feel, above all else, totally  _ lost. _ It was a feeling born from love. From a fear of seeing her mother so afraid and uneasy. It was a feeling of regret that she couldn’t do more to help. Sympathetic fear.

...But this feeling now - the pit in her stomach - was a  _ different  _ kind of fear. It wasn’t sympathetic but  _ threatening,  _ like she could feel herself walking into the trap and  _ knew _ she was doing so, but for some reason couldn’t budge from that path. It was helpless at the face of a sharp-toothed jaw and she knew the bite would be coming any moment.  _ So why couldn’t she stop it? Why couldn’t she  _ ** _say_ ** _ something and get them the hell out of there? _

“ _ Min. _ ” Coyle repeated, as Ninjara clicked his fingers in her face.

She shook her head, blinking rapidly as she snapped out of her daze. “S-Sorry, my mind was...  _ Elsewhere... _ ”

“It’s one of those days.” Coyle shrugged.

_ Get out of the trap. You  _ ** _know_ ** _ this is a trap -  _ ** _say_ ** _ something,  _ ** _do_ ** _ something! _

“Anyway,” Coyle began again, turning back to Mechanica as the others made their way to the stairs. “ _ Bit of a delay _ but I think we can still get to Fontaine before sundown!”

“Fontaine...?” Mechanica blinked, cluelessly.

Min Min stopped, her foot on the first step of the staircase and her hand lightly graping the banister. 

“...Yeah.” Coyle squinted, confused at Mechanica’s puzzlement. “The water park arena?  _ You were excited to go. _ ”

“ _ O-Oh, I-I was...? _ ” She laughed nervously. “I just... I-I’m not really feeling it anymore, i-is the thing. C-Could we just go  _ home _ instead?”

Min Min turned her head slowly over her shoulder at the two stood in the hotel lobby.  _ Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. _

“Mechanica, sweetie, I know you’re feeling a bit dazed but-”

“ _ P-Please. _ ” Mechanica frowned, her lower lip quivering slightly. “I-I just want to go home, mom. Can we go home?  _ Please? _ ”

Coyle stared back, completely bewildered. “ _ M-Mom...?! _ ”

Min Min’s heart thumped in her chest rapidly.  _ Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap. Trap.  _

Mechanica’s face went blank for a moment, then she bit her lip and looked away, laughing nervously again. “S-Sorry, I-I...” She put her hand to her forehead. “I-I’m just feeling a little dizzy, i-is all. I think I’d just like to go home and r-rest, y’know?”

Coyle exhaled deeply. “...It’s been a difficult morning for all of us. I’m not really sure what you went through, but it clearly didn’t do your head much good.” She put the back of her hand to Mechanica’s forehead. “You’re  _ freezing _ cold, too. Maybe a water park isn’t so much a great idea.”

Mechanica nodded slowly.

“But are you  _ sure? _ It might be a while ‘til you get another chance to go, and I really wouldn’t want you to regret your decision.”

“I’m sure.” She added, without much hesitation. “I just want to go home and see my friends and family and  _ everyone. _ ”

“Alright, then...” Coyle sighed. She’d have to explain to the League officials, but that wouldn’t be too hard to do given the prior disappearance.

“Min, you comin’?” Ninjara asked from atop the highest stair in the case. He had made it into one of the rooms already and only noticed she hadn’t followed after returning to the hallway.

Min Min slowly turned back to him and, after a moment, began to ascend the stairs. Each step up she took, she knew, would be another step deeper into the trap.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So we’re  _ not _ going to Fontaine?!” Ninjara glared, a hand on his hip.

“ _ No. _ ” Coyle glared back. “She’s clearly not feeling well. And do  _ you _ really want to go swimming after the morning we’ve had?  _ Please. _ ”

Min Min set down the small pink and purple suitcase with the other three they had brought so far. She unzipped it for a moment and withdrew the Nintendo Switch carry case inside it.

Ninjara sighed. “ _ Fine, yeah, I guess... _ ” Giving up on the trip now had kinda made the whole journey - and their rough stay at Redwood - a total waste, but she  _ did _ have a point.

Min Min set down the Switch in front of Mechanica, who now sat exactly where she had the night before, in the expectation that she’d want to play it for the trip back home. Instead, Mechanica looked over it as if she had never seen it before in her life.  _ Deeper still. _

“One... Two... Three...” Coyle counted the cases, quickly and quietly. “Just one more room to account for.”

“Unless Springtron’s got some stuff left in his room?” Ninjara asked, innocently. “Spare harddrives or old screws or somethin’? ...Malware discs, maybe?”

“Springtron never  _ had _ a room, you  _ dolt. _ ” Coyle mumbled back, putting her feet up on the dashboard again. She had grown to hate being stuck in that seat, but after their stay in Redwood? It was _ paradise. _ “We had  _ five  _ rooms total.”

“Just mine left.” Min Min interjected, dryly. “I’ll go get it...” She turned back for the door, then paused, taking one more look at Mechanica. The thought of being on this  _ several _ hour coach ride with her was weirdly sickening. But  _ why? _ They had been side by side through the entirety of the first trip. Why would this be so different?

Min Min left the coach, just as Coyle began to groan in the realization that she’d actually have to be the one to drive them now that Springtron was out of action. The air of the hotel’s otherwise empty parking lot was cool and fresh and distinctly noticeable, like the smell of soil after rain.  _ Petrichor, _ as Ribbon Girl had  _ fun fact’d _ her one afternoon. There was unlikely to a name for this air, though. You could probably call it ‘country air’ or something, in the belief that the solitude of the town was what gave the air its freshness, but in actuality it was likely just her nose having forgotten what clean air smelt like after a few minutes in that coach with that putrid smell Mechanica had refused to shower off.

The hotel was now, she figured, the emptiest any of them had seen it. It was cold and quiet and lifeless, almost surgically so, like an evacuated airport after a bomb scare or something. Stood in the lobby she could head faint movement from behind the ‘staff only’ door - Alice filing some stuff away, perhaps. Part of her wanted to ambush Alice one-on-one, and ask her just what the hell she was hiding - because she still  _ knew _ , deep down, that she  _ was _ hiding something. But she decided against it.

She climbed the stairs ahead of her.  _ Stop feeling sick. _ She breathed deeply. _ Why do you have to do this to yourself? You’re given a  _ ** _miracle_ ** _ and you try to find faults in it. You try to twist it around and corrupt it. Why can’t you just be happy?! _

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Min Min descended the stairs a little brighter than she had been when she climbed them. As she had gotten her suitcase from her room she had taken a moment to check the time on her phone and, in doing so, had reminded herself of her recent trip to Buster Beach with Ribbon Girl. As she looked over the photo of her and Ribbon Girl from said trip, which had been made into her phone’s lock screen photo, she found herself  _ overcome _ with relief that she would no longer need to tell Ribbon Girl of Mechanica’s ‘fate’. It would have utterly  _ destroyed _ her to do so, and there was really no telling just how badly she’d have taken it.

The prospect of  _ accepting _ this ‘miracle’ was starting to grow on her. Shouldn’t she be allowed some mercy every once in a while? Shouldn’t she be allowed a win? Sure, Mechanica was acting a little  _ off _ , but she’d spent the morning lost in a weird and unfamiliar town - was it  _ that _ much of a surprise? She would return to her normal  _ loveable _ self in time. Hell, even before they arrived back, most likely.

She skid her suitcase out from the lobby and wheeled it down the parking lot toward the coach.

Putting up with her  _ smell _ for the ride home might not be the most pleasant thing, of course. It was a  _ very _ distinct smell - and not even  _ remotely _ a nice one. But given all she had gone through, she could put up with that. And she wouldn’t hold it against her after the fact, either.

“Min Min.” Came a surprise deep voice from behind.

She paused in place, now about half way from the hotel to the coach, which wasn’t much a long journey at all. “Ah!” She smiled, turning in place. “We were waiting for you.”

“I have news.” Spoke Misango, looking down on her with those serious Miangan eyes.

“I can beatcha at that!” She grinned. “ _ We got Mechanica back. _ ”

He stared at her.

“...As in,  _ she came back. _ ” She repeated, surprised at his, well,  _ lack _ of surprise. “She’s back and unharmed and...”

He continued to stare - not in a zoned-out or thousand-yard manner, but staring  _ at _ her with purpose.

“...W-What?” She began to feel deeply uneasy again.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Might be mold or something.” Coyle, sat in the driver’s seat, quietly hushed to Ninjara. “Or mildew or something. Probably  _ her pyjamas _ more than  _ herself. _ ”

“Yeah, but  _ that _ strong?” He whispered back from his spot in the passenger’s seat, carefully keeping an eye on the young girl at the back of the coach, who was comfortably laid on the sofa at the very end of the vehicle. “Must be a  _ lot _ of mildew.”

Coyle rolled her eyes. “She’s just spent the night outside fresh after a rainstorm. _ She’s not going to smell like daisies. _ ” It  _ did _ seem weird to her, though. It wasn’t a very  _ mildew _ smell - nor that of mold or garbage or gasoline or  _ bodily fluids _ . It was a  _ familiar _ smell,  _ so _ familiar, but she just couldn’t pinpoint it.

Misango opened the coach door and entered, shortly followed by Min Min, who lugged her suitcase inside too.

“Ah!” Coyle grinned, slipping out of her seat to put a hand on Misango’s shoulder. “ _ Man of the hour!  _ Glad you finally made it.  _ Fashionably late, as usual. _ ” She motioned over to Mechanica, who had sat up on the sofa to look at him. “ _ You’ve met the youngin’, yeah? _ Safe and healthy, thank god.  _ We’re in the clear. _ ”

He stared down at her intently, and she looked back up at him, innocently puzzled.

“We were  _ almost _ gonna leave without ya.” Coyle added, turning back to approach the driver’s seat. “We’ve given up on Fontaine, by the way. I think we’d  _ all _ rather put this trip behind us.”

“Don’t start the vehicle.” He muttered slowly, eyes glaring on Mechanica.

Coyle blinked. “...And why  _ not? _ ” She gave an annoyed pout to the back of his head. “You mean to tell me you have unfinished business in this shithole town?”

Misango grabbed Min Min firmly by the wrist and pulled her out of the coach and into the parking lot. She gasped and stumbled, almost falling, as he brought her back out into the sun.

“H-Hey, dude!” She growled, yanking her hand back once she got her footing sorted. “ _ What gives?! _ ”

“In the forest.” He began. “I came across a large structure of log and branches -  _ man made, _ but aged and withered.”

She stared blankly at him, totally unsure of where he was going with this, yet for some reason deeply troubled.

“It was an  _ unholy _ structure. Built on  _ impure  _ land and assembled of  _ accursed _ lumber and kindling. Hollow within and  _ incubating _ something chaotic. It had begun by the hand of man but the outermost layers were thickened by something  _ not mortal. _ ”

She felt herself tensing up, and the cold country air made her shiver as it passed. She could feel where this was going and she didn’t like it. “A-And you’re saying...” She gulped uneasily. “...Y-You think Mechanica has been to... O-Or  _ in _ that...  _ Structure? _ ”

“No.” He rebutted, bluntly and coldly, with the confidence of a wise and strong leader.

For a moment it made her feel reassured - but only for a moment. 

“ _ Mechanica is  _ ** _still_ ** _ in that structure. _ ”


	7. Falling Apart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slight delay! I've actually proofread this one, though~

Misango barged back into the coach, causing a slam as the door opened.

“You done?” Coyle asked bitterly, raising an eyebrow.

“ _ Remove the child from the vehicle. _ ” He commanded gruffly.

Coyle jumped to her feet. “ _ What?! _ ”

“D-Do as he says!” Min Min added, quickly following behind Misango. She was shaking again, but more than she had been at any other point that morning - which was  _ really _ saying something. “G-Get her off the bus, I-I don’t care how,  _ just get her off! _ ”

Coyle slipped around the two put herself ahead of Misango, placing her hand squarely on his chest. “And why the  _ fuck _ would we do that?” She glared evilly, disgusted at even the suggestion.

“C-Coy-” Min Min felt her throat bulge and repressed the urge to throw up. “...Th-That’s  _ not _ Mechanica, it’s  _ not _ h-her i-it...”

“The child is an imposter.” Misango delivered bluntly, clarifying the nautious Min Min’s point. “It is using us to distance itself from the town.”

“ _ You eat some weird mushrooms while you were out there?! _ ” Coyle growled. “I don’t care what the  _ fuck _ your little imaginary friend has told you. We are  _ not _ all turning on Mechanica over some crazy bullshit you just came up with,  _ especially _ after the day she’s had.”

“Th-The  _ smell, _ Coyle!!” Min Min urged, tears streaming down her cheeks again.

“ _ Shut it, ramen breath. _ ” She glared back.

“L-Let’s all just  _ calm down... _ ” Ninjara urged, putting his hands out as if trying to stop a fight.

“You can fuck right off  _ too, _ bed wetter.” She struck back at him. “I’ll kick the lot of you out if I have to and then you can find your  _ own _ way home.”

“N-Ninj...” Min Min motioned, gulping as she shook. “Y-You  _ get _ this isn’t right, r-right? You  _ get _ something is wrong with her?”

He hung his mouth open, not really wanting to pick a side in this mess - especially not if it meant getting stranded in Redwood. He  _ had _ noticed something off, though. The smell was one thing, but the freakish  _ cold _ of the girl was a whole other detail. He had playfully picked up her to get past her, the way he had done once or twice on the drive over, and the unsettling  _ cold _ had struck him like nothing else.

“Coyle.” Misango began.

“ _ Shut it. _ ” She spat back. “I don’t wanna hear another  _ word _ from you.”

“The smell.” He continued, despite the warning.

“ _ Oh! _ ” She grimaced. “I am  _ so _ about to punch your lights out.”

“What does it remind you of, Ninjara?” He asked, turning his head somewhat - but keeping both Coyle and ‘Mechanica’ fully within his view.

“I-I...” He hung his jaw open, not expecting to be questioned again, and still hoping not to get  _ involved. _ “...I-I dunno!  _ Nothing, _ really.” That was the truth, actually. He didn’t recognise it at all.

“Min Min?” Misango’s head turned slightly, now toward her.

“I-I  _ don’t know. _ ” She replied instantly. “B-But I  _ hate _ it, I-I...” She gulped again. She was pretty sure she  _ would _ be sick soon.

“ _ Shut. Up. _ ” Coyle grunted, getting progressively more pissed off. Don’t they have  _ any _ idea how damaging it is for a girl Mechanica’s age to be made fun of for her smell?! And after  _ all _ she’d been through, was it really any  _ wonder _ that she didn’t smell so ‘clean’??  _ Assholes. _

“Coyle.”

“I have had  _ enough _ of-”

“ _ You recognise the smell. _ ” Misango interrupted 

She scrunched her hand into a fist, ready to start laying down some law on these idiots. “ _ I don’t know what ‘the smell’ is, and frankly I really don’t c- _ ”

“But you recognise it. Don’t you?” Misango continued,  _ again _ interrupting her. “You don’t yet recall from where but you know it’s a scent familiar to you. It’s not one that many would easily forget.”

Coyle put her hands to her head, intertwining her fingers into her hair and tugging down.  _ This  _ was why people called her crazy -  _ because idiots always broke her down to this point. _ She took a  _ very _ deep breath and made one final effort to calm herself. “ _ Okay, jackass.  _ If  _ I _ supposedly remember it, and  _ you _ sure as shit seem to, then  _ what do you and I have in common that these two monkeys don’t? _ ” She threw up her ARMS dramatically. “Maybe it’s the smell of  _ soldered metal! _ Or, no, maybe it’s the smell of  _ grass growing. _ Yeahhhhh! Real familiar stuff to  _ both _ of us, huh?!”

As she stared angrily into his eyes, she suddenly noted some tiny fragment of  _ sympathy _ in them, and for a moment she believed they might have had something in common after all. “...It is the duty of the Misangan Chief...” he began - sternly but almost  _ delicately _ now, as if he knew this would be a hard revelation for her. “...To bury our dead.”

She lay silent, still twitching in anger, as she tried to even  _ process _ just what the hell that meant. Had  _ she _ been an Misangan Chief? Had  _ she _ gone grave digging? Had-

And then it hit her. All at once, striking her deep down in her very soul before it ever got processed at a conscious level. She  _ did _ recognise that smell. And just as he had said, it was a smell so distinct and rendering that one could never  _ truly _ forget it.

Long ago, way before she had joined the ARMS League, or divorced Brass, or  _ married _ Brass, or even had ARMS of her own at all, and even as far back as before she had joined the ARMS Lab no less, Dr. Coyle - Dr.  _ Romana, _ back then - had taken a summer job, as part of furthering her medical education, at a  _ morgue _ . 

_ That _ was the smell. That was the smell that Mechanica had been rife with ever since reappearing out of thin air. It had gotten on Coyle’s clothes from her hug, and it had started to pollute the coach’s air like a fire burning through underbrush.

It was the smell of  _ decomposition. _ The smell a corpse starts to make a few hours after the person dies - much sooner than one would think, harrowingly. It was the utter  _ stench _ of rotten flesh that exuded out of Mechanica, and it was unmistakable. Not mold or mildew or garbage or gasoline or even bodily fluids, no, Mechanica was  _ rotting. _

A desperate grasp into the darkness came now as Coyle tried to rationalize her way out of this. Perhaps Mechanica had spent the night in a  _ pile _ of corpses - alive and well herself, but baked on all sides by the decomposition. But, of course, she knew that wasn’t it.

Because Mechanica was  _ cold.  _ She had had no body heat from the moment she returned through the hotel doors to the moment she sat down at the back of the coach. Coyle had noticed from the split second she had wrapped around her, but had just passed it off as the cold outdoors still radiating from the poor girl. But she couldn’t deny it now - it was  _ unnatural,  _ whatever it was. Disgustingly so. Like hugging a dangling hunk of meat in the walk-in of a butchers.

Coyle’s demeanour had changed. She was no longer a steaming hot headed mess of squared shoulders and clenched fists - she had  _ melted _ down, her shoulders low and her ARMS dangling, as her face stared blankly into nothingness, her eyes lightly shaking from left to right. She knew what that smell had been. She knew why Mechanica was so cold. The pieces were fitting together, and the picture was too much for her to process. So she froze.

...Min Min barged forward suddenly, pushing the passive Coyle aside and standing tall in front of the crowd - even as her legs shook. She glared down at the young woman stood before the sofa at the back, attempting to look innocent and pitiful, and felt nothing but  _ disdain  _ for her. “If you  _ are _ her,” she barked, “ _ then what’s her  _ ** _name?!_ ** ”

‘Mechanica’ looked back at her, eye-to-eye, half with intimidation and half with virginity. “...M-My name is  _ Mechanica. _ ” She mumbled, a  _ slight _ quiver in her voice. “I-I don’t know why you’d-”

“ _ NO. _ ” Min Min spat back sharply. “Not  _ that _ name, we’ve  _ said _ that name a-a  _ hundred _ times!” She sniffled, and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “What is her  _ ACTUAL  _ name?  _ B-Before  _ she became an ARMS fighter. What would her  _ father _ call her?”

‘Mechanica’ stared blankly at her - the kind of look that said ‘ _ No, really, trust me!! _ ’ Despite the lack of an answer.

“... _ W-Well?! _ ” She sniffled again. “R-Ribbon and I  _ saw _ that name on a  _ certificate _ in her  _ bedroom.  _ W-We weren’t  _ meant _ to have seen it, but we  _ did, a-and I sure as hell didn’t forget it! _ ” Another nose wipe. “I  _ know _ her name! So why the  _ fuck _ don’t  _ you?! _ ”

‘Mechanica’ looked down. “ _ ...I-I don’t know. _ I-I’ve been going by  _ Mechanica _ for so long now, I-I’ve even started to forget my own-”

“ ** _Bullshit._ ** ” She threw back.

Ninjara stepped forward and put a hand on Min Min’s shoulder, but his eyes were firmly locked on the  _ imposter _ standing before them. He  _ too _ had been convinced of her ingenuity - even if he didn’t really  _ understand _ it. “...Name a Ribbon Girl song.”

She fell silent again.

“ _ Or any lyric, even. _ ” He exhaled deeply through his nose, his head tilted back a touch so he could really look  _ down _ at her. To think someone or some _ thing _ could be low enough to impersonate a beloved friend of theirs... To even go as far as hiding away the  _ real _ Mechanica just so they could  _ replace _ her. What kind of a monster  _ was _ this?!

“ _ Times up, asshole. _ ” Min Min growled, still shaking. “Where the  _ fuck _ is the real Mechanica?!”

‘Mechanica’ looked back and forth between the two of them rapidly, her lower lip trembling as she forced her puppy dog eyes as best as she possibly could. “I-I just... M-My memory h-has been  _ failing _ since what happened earlier, a-and...” She put a hand to her forehead and began to tremble slightly. “M-My head... I-It’s been hurting  _ s-so _ much...”

“ _ Q-Quit it! _ ” Min Min blared through her teeth.

“Wh-Wh-Why won’t you guys b-b-believe me?!” She sniffled. “I-I thought you guys w-were my fr-friends, and-”

“Stop it.  _ Stop it! _ ” Min Min continued angrily. Ninjara tightened his grip on her in an attempt to keep her calm and stable.

‘Mechanica’ turned her focus to the deeply disturbed woman stood behind the two. “ _ C-Coyle!! _ ” She called out, making Coyle flinch. “Y-You believe me, r-right?! Y-You’re not just gonna  _ give up _ on me too, a-are you?!”

Coyle stared blankly for a moment, then slowly walked forward, splitting between the two ahead of her down the middle. She looked down at the face of the young girl she had grown to care for so dearly,  _ almost as if she were her own child _ , and saw looking back a desperate gaze that looked  _ nothing _ like an expression Mechanica had ever given before.

‘Mechanica’ blinked. “C-Coyle...?!”

“...What’s your Studebaker Number?” Coyle stared coldly and blankly.

“M-My what...?”

“I won’t explain what it is. You should  _ know _ what it is.”

Named after a particular engineer at the ARMS Lab, each employee’s _Studebaker Number_ was a sequence string of star signs, currencies, capital cities, cereal brands, Pokemon, and hairstyles that each Lab employee had been assigned and forced _encouraged _to memorize. This tough set of random elements could then be used to confirm their identities. Coyle’s own number had begun with _Paris, Oreo O’s, Grumpig, Libra, Disco Curls_ and so on.

Dr. Studebaker had  _ assured _ Coyle that the database used to store each employee’s assigned sequence string was totally impenetrable - but to be  _ extra _ safe, she memorized them all herself and then destroyed the database. A very  _ Coyle _ solution indeed.

‘Mechanica’ stayed silent for a moment - but it had become clear by now that silence really wasn’t about to get her anywhere. “W-Well... I-I don’t want to  _ say _ it in front of... Y-Y’know...” She flicked her eyes up at the others, as if implying her hesitation was merely to keep them from listening in and memorizing it.

“How many ‘digits’ are  _ in _ a Studebaker Number, then?” Coyle muttered, growing more detached from this  _ image _ of Mechancia.

She paused again, then her mouth slowly let out a weak  _ guess. _ “...S-Six?” In actuality, there were  _ thirty _ entries in each sequence string. And Mechanica’s in particular had started with  _ Cinnamon Toast Crunch, _ a cereal she decidedly  _ hated _ , which caused her to start each recital of her number with a grossed-out look on her face - her tongue out in disgust. Just another of the many particular details this copy  _ lacked. _

Coyle inhaled deeply, doing a remarkable job of keeping calm. “ _ ...Where is Mechanica? _ ”

“I-I-I-I’m  _ right here! _ ” She pleaded. “Wh-Why won’t you believe me?!  _ I-I’m right here in front of you!! _ ”

“ _ TELL ME WHERE SHE IS. _ ” Coyle growled, sick of this foul  _ game  _ being played on her.

The imposter Mechanica before them looked up with one last attempt at pitiful puppy dog eyes, but realizing that train had long left the station, her face suddenly fell flat and cold again. She glared into Coyle’s eyes deeply and seriously - a look of revolting  _ hatred _ coming through with every gleam. “ _ ...She died because of you. _ ”

Coyle froze tightly. Ninjara could feel his heart stop and a sudden well of despair push forward all at once. Min Min, again, felt her stomach churn in preparation of an oral expulsion of her stomach’s contents.

“She died alone. And  _ scared. _ And  _ screaming. _ ” Her face curled into a snarl as she began to show an extreme and hateful  _ anger _ come forth - completely and utterly uncharacteristic for Mechanica. “AND SHE’LL LAY  _ FOREVER _ IN THE  _ COLD _ WITH HER ARMS  _ SPLINTERED IN PIECES. _ ”

The four of them watched in horror as the face Mechanica body began to  _ rapidly decompose _ before their very eyes.

“ _ DEAD. DEAD LIKE THE REST OF THEM. DEAD LIKE THEY ALL BELONG. _ ”

Teeth fell out as she grunted her horrific comments, parts of her face fell away into sickening black sludge, and her clothes began to deteriorate into shreds and rags.

“ _ DEAD LIKE THEY  _ ** _DESERVE_ ** _ .” _

Min Min clasped a hand over her mouth, and on seeing Mechanica’s jaw dislodge from her head and fall down to the growing pile of rotten flesh below, she lunged for the coach’s door and escaped. The others averted their eyes - all save for Misango, watching bravely and unswayed - until ‘Mechanica’ was no more than a sick and lifeless mess of flesh, bone, fabric, and hair on the coach’s floor.


	8. What She's Hiding

They left the coach. The putrid smell from the fake Mechanica’s body had gotten even worse as it had fallen into morbid chunks on the floor.

Their hopes for cleaner air were met almost immediately, but there was no relief from stomach-churning imagery to be found here. There, by the coach’s door, knelt Min Min - her eyes wet, her hand to her mouth, and a large puddle of vomit on the asphalt in front of her.

Ninjara winced at the sight, then carefully approached, his movement slow and careful. “Y-You alright...?”

Her head nodded up and down a bit, her hand still pressed to her mouth. “I... I’ll be okay j-...” She paused. “...J-Just give me a m-moment...” Small bits of half-digested food littered both the puddle below her and the back of her hand, where thin wet strands stuck down from the gaps between her fingers. She had thrown up _ through _ her hand in a desperate attempt to stop it.

Ninjara cautiously pat her shoulder, trying to be supportive but feeling immensely squicked at the same time.

“...So.” Coyle began, dryly, as she approached Misango from behind, a few steps away from Min Min’s sickening display. “...That...” She sighed. “...That _ thing. _ That we just _ dealt _ with...” She paused for a moment. “...What was it?” It was an unusual sight to see Coyle asking something so seriously to Misango. It was _ one _ thing to submit a request for knowledge to a man unfamiliar with the concept of bathtubs, but she was also now asking _ specifically _ about the supernatural - something she had never, even for a _ moment _ , believed in. Until now, at least. What other explanation _ was _ there?

“...I don’t know.” Misango answered, truthfully.

“...Well, fat load of good _ that _ is.” She sighed, folding her ARMS and staring off into the distance.

“I don’t know what it _ is _ , Coyle, as it was not a creature in and of _ itself _ .” He clarified. “It was merely a _ vessel. _ Something poileted from an unseen and currently unidentified force.”

She scratched her head. “S-So... Like a _ demon _ , or whatever, _ possessing _ something?” She met his curious look with a frustrated sigh. “We have _ movies _ i the civilized world that tell _ fictional stories _ about, like, _ dolls _ or whatever being possessed and controlled by a _ demon _ that goes into it and moves it around. You said it was a _ shell _ , so is _ that _ what you’re telling us? That it was a _ thing _ some demon - or ‘ _ dark force _ ’, or _ whatever _ \- was using as a body?”

He sighed gruffly. “...Perhaps _ vessel _ was the wrong word. It was being controlled, yes, but not from _ within - _ the unholy entity was not present _ with _ us, but overseeing from afar. Like a television remote controlling a television set.”

She nodded slowly, a little surprised by his seemingly well-formed comparison. “...And...” She felt uneasy, but had to ask. “,,,And _ Mechanica. _ Sh-She’s... She’s _ dead _ now, is she?”

He stared at her again - that same slight look of confusion.

She sighed and pushed the words out of her mouth. “...It was controlling h-her... Her _ body. _ And then, when it _ stopped _ , her body...” She gulped. “... _ Fell apart... _”

“That was not Mechanica’s body.” He clarified, bluntly.

She widened her eyes. “I-It wasn’t? _ How? _ I-It looked just like her!”

“It was an illusion created by the entity. The body was not convincing enough without it.” He nodded. “When it gave up its form its illusion broke with it. We saw it for what it truly was - a patchwork of decomposed flesh from varying sources. Some male. Some female. Some more decayed than others.”

As horrific as it had been to watch, Coyle _ had _ noticed patches of the fake Mechanica’s skin changing colour as it began to ‘reveal’ itself. And Mechanica could never have been _ that _ decayed from just half a day unaccounted for, after all...

Ninjara held his breath and poofed his way into the coach again, then quickly poofed back out with a box of tissues at the ready. Min Min took one and began to clean herself up, at least as best she could.

“...And Mechanica...” Coyle began again, drumming her fingers on her foreARM as she watched the sun begin to set. “...The _ real _ Mechanica, _ our _ Mechanica...”

“You’re asking if she’s still alive.” Misango completed for her.

She lowered her head. “...Is she?”

“I don’t know.” He replied, in honesty. “...But I do think there’s a likelihood. _ Copies _ are hard to make from memory alone. I would suspect this unholy entity needed the ‘original’ as a reference point. And a decaying reference is not a good reference.”

She nodded again, a bit more enthusiastic. If this ‘_ spirit’ _ were keeping Mechanica somewhere, and needed her alive, then they likely had until Mechanica would die of starvation or dehydration, assuming it didn’t know enough to _ feed _ its victims. That made sense to her - at least, to a fair degree. Probably _ anything _ would after what she’d just seen. But this also gave her hope, and she was going to hang onto that one way or another. 

Min Min hurdled over to them, supported somewhat by Ninjara. “I-I’m good...” She mumbled, still a little dizzy. “A-And Mechanica, is she...?”

Coyle shrugged her large round shoulders. “I’m not sure, but I’m about to find out.”

“You have a plan...?!” Ninjara remarked, a little bewildered that she could cook one up so quick following what just happened.

“Yep.” She nodded. “Misango - you’ve got a strong stomach, yeah?” She turned to face him once more. The man she was steadily growing to _ respect _ , believe it or not _ . _ “Go into the coach and clear up that... _ Mess. _ Chuck into the bushes for all I care. Then open some windows and air the place out, _ and for god’s sake wash your hands after. _We’re gonna need to get the hell outta here once we’ve got Mechanica back. Meet us here again when you’re done.”

He nodded and made way for the coach’s door again. The others recoiled from the sudden return of corpse smell as he entered.

“A-And _ us? _” Min Min pushed, cautiously. 

Coyle cracked her neck, and stood to face the tall hotel building that towered over them. “_ We’re gonna find out what the locals are hiding. _”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alice, thankful to _ finally _ be free of the nightmarish events of the past eighteen hours or so, quietly organized the shelves at the back of the hotel’s ‘staff only’ room. She knew it might still be a few days until her appetite returned to her, _ especially _ given the note it all ended on - a note she’d actively be putting out of her mind for the rest of time, for certain - but what really mattered at the moment was that it was an issue no longer ‘around’ her, no longer confrontingly staring her in the face, and _ that _much she could learn to live with. Out of sight and out of mind, as they say.

She dropped a tea bag into her favourite cup and cautiously poured in the boiling water. The relaxing green tea smell almost immediately began to float back up at her with a calming warmth. She really didn’t make tea enough! But if she did, would that not diminish its benefits? If she got used to it, she supposed, it’d surely lose that calming touch... So perhaps it was better to leave it just for after stressful situations after all. The ultimate pick-me-up. It was _ good _ to treat herself once in a while!

She left the tea to steep as she flicked through the files at back shelf again. She had already removed all records of their _ guests _ the night before, as was ‘protocol’, but she always found a need to double and triple check just to be _ sure _ . She wondered again, if only for a moment... _ Was this _ ** _really_ ** _ the right job for her...? _ On the one hand, the kitchen crew and other workers were absolutely _ lovely _ to her, the job paid well and it was _ usually _ a pretty relaxed gig! ...But, then again, this was the _ third _ ‘incident’ since she started, and it had been even worse than the last two. _ Far _ worse, even. Could she _ really _ stomach going through this again every other year? What if the next time was _ even worse?! _ Yes, she’d been told time and again that she’d grow familiar to it to the point where it’d no longer bother her, but how long would it take to get to that point? Was it really worth it?

...Out of sight, out of mind. It was something she could consider next time - if there even _ was _ to be a next time, in her employment. For all she knew there could be a new job opening elsewhere in town within the next six months or so, so she wouldn’t even _ be _ here for the next time. Maybe she’d go work at a cafe or a spa. Oh, or maybe a _ library? _ That’d be nice. Libraries were, near enough, just big room-versions of green tea. There was nowhere on Earth more relaxing than in a-

She jumped as she heard the door open behind her, and quickly turned toward it. There, breaking all relaxation she had managed to this point, stood Min Min - a blunt reminder of what she had _ just _ put out of her mind. She just _ stood _ there, staring, as if _ waiting. _

Alice glared back at her and carefully walked backwards, ready to dash for the back door the _ second _ Min Min began to walk. _ Back door. Kitchen. Kitchen staff. _ They were tough and they stood up for her. She’d be _ safe _. She just had to get there.

...She jumped again as she heard another door shut from behind her. Ninjara had come through her only exit, and now both exits were blocked by ghosts of what she enabled. She looked back and forth between them rapidly - they just _ stood _ there. What the hell did they want?! _ Why the hell hadn’t they left already?! _

She gulped, doing her best to straighten her back and seem tall and confident. “I-I’d like to _ leave. _” She stated as firmly as she could, hoping desperately they’d let her walk right now without further fuss.

“No.” Min Min answered bluntly from where she stood.

Alice shivered a bit, then turned her attention to Ninjara again, who just continued to stare at her. She turned back to Min Min, who somehow felt more ‘reasonable’, if only because she _ actually _ reacted. “I-I...” She bit her lip. “I-I don’t know what you _ want. _”

“Answers.” Min Min continued. “We _ know _ this place is fucked up. And we know _ you _ are hiding something.” She sighed under her breath, utterly _ drained _ at this point. “...Just make this easy for us and tell us what you know.”

...Alice remained silent, her lower lip quivering slightly. She didn’t speak, and only looked down at the floor in regret. Whether or not she wanted to share - whether or not she _ agreed _ with what was going on - she knew she was in no position to start blabbing. She knew what would happen if she did.

Min Min shut her eyes. “_ Please _ make this easy for us. I really don’t have the energy left to help you.”

“I-I...” She gulped again. “...I’m afraid I really don’t know what you’re looking for...”

Min Min sighed. She didn’t want it to come to this, she didn’t care enough to stop it. She had given her a chance, after all.

...An electrical blue light in the center of the room sparked and flickered, and from out of nowhere Coyle came into view. Alice had about a split second to turn her attention to the _ furious _ woman, and less time to really process what she was seeing, before she felt her head smack the back of the wall _ hard. _

Coyle crunched her hand tighter around Alice’s neck, pinning her hard against the ‘staff only’ room’s back wall _ suffocatingly. _ She held the girl up high, dangling her kicking legs as she tried desperately to escape her grasp. “ _ Time to get talking. _”

Tears began to stream down Alice’s cheeks as she tried to pry apart the copper hand around her neck. She felt now, more _ certain _ than ever, that she would die. Coyle was going to kill her. _ She knew it. _

Coyle pulled her back and thumped her again against the wall, smacking the back of Alice’s head hard in a manner that made Min Min jump, despite how little she had cared for ‘protecting’ Alice from Coyle just a moment ago.

“St-st-st-st-stop!! Pl-pl-pl-” Alice whimpered.

“_ I want answers. _ ” She glared. “And one way or another? _ I’m getting them. _”

“I-I... I-I don’t...” Alice cried.

Coyle rolled her eyes. “_ Typical idiot. _ ” She huffed. “They always stand their ground until you _ show _ them you’re serious...”

Suddenly, in a motion so swift you could almost call it beautiful, Coyle extended her free ARM to the other side of the room and grabbed Alice’s teacup. Without another word, and before either Min Min or Ninjara could voice a protest, Coyle swung her ARM back and splattered its contents onto Alice’s left leg.

She tensed up and screamed, which was muffled immediately by Coyle’s hand then placing flat over her mouth, dropping the teacup to the ground where it shattered. Min Min and Ninjara both watched wide-eyed as Alice squirmed and twitched as the blisteringly hot tea drenched over her, seeping through her trousers, where it’d meet her skin and _ scald _ it badly.

“_ You see, now? _ ” Coyle grunted. “ _ I’m not _ ** _fucking_ ** _ around here. _ I want to know where the _ fuck _ my friend is, and if you think for a _ second _ I won’t kill you to get to her then you are _ dead wrong. _ ” She squeezed her choking hand even tighter. “ _ I will tear you apart limb from limb until you tell me what you know, and if you _ ** _die_ ** _ before you do I will take you back to my lab, _ ** _reanimate_ ** _ you, and _ ** _torture_ ** _ you all over again. _”

_ Christ, Coyle! _ Min Min thought to herself, not daring to speak it aloud. Had this side of Coyle _ always _ been present?! ...Or was it just born, here and now, from all the royally fucked up stuff they’d been through?

Coyle could feel Alice’s muffled screams getting less intense - _ a good sign. _ Even if it just meant she was getting too tired of screaming. “How about I tell you what _ I _ know first, huh?” She glared. “ _ And then you can fill in the blanks. _”

She suddenly dropped Alice to the floor, atop the puddle of spilt tea and broken teacup shards. She sobbed openly, but quietly, as she pressed her hands to her burning leg.

“_ ...Why Mechancia? _ ” Coyle began. “That’s been on my mind since this whole shitshow started. _ Why her? _ Because she was the least likely of us to fight back? Because she was the _ prettiest? _ ” She stood tall and stared down at Alice. “...No.” She gruffed. “It was _ her _ because she was _ young. _”

Min Min blinked at Coyle, wide-eyed, already sure she wasn’t going to like where she was going with this.

“_ That’s _ the deep secret about this town, isn’t it?” Coyle continued. “ _ You take the children. _ It’s _ obvious _ once you start to look for it. No one _ has _ children here. There are no schools, no children’s clothes in the store, no kid’s menus in the restaurants. Every bus stop and park bench and back alley wall is _ clean _ and _ pristine _ , because no one’s around to graffiti them!” She cracked her knuckles. “Even that old hag I spoke to earlier. Her son and daughter-in-law _ moved out of town _ to have their child. Why?” She glared deeper at Alice, a deep hatred raging through her. “ _ Because this town isn’t _ ** _safe_ ** _ for children. _”

Min Min’s head pounded. Everything Coyle had mentioned, from the kid’s menus to the bus stops to the couple who moved out, it all made _ sense... _ And yet it didn’t _ feel _ right. It was that pang in her head again - like something was _ missing. _ Was this not the answer they were looking for?! ...Why did it feel like the _ wrong _ answer?

“_ What happens to the children? _ ” Coyle spat. “Ordinarily I’d be content assuming ‘ _ the usual’. _ And if I did that I’d wipe this sick and twisted town from the map without a second thought. But _ lucky _ for you, I feel there might be more to this one. That _ corpse _ you left us with complicates things.”

_ Not right. Not children. Something else. _ Min Min put her hand to her head. She was _ almost _ there, she was _ so _ sure of it.

“_ Are you gonna answer me? _ ” Coyle glared. “Might want to note the boots I’m wearing while you’re down there. Because I’m _ this _ close to kicking your teeth out.”

“I-It’s...” Alice gulped, her leg now feeling numb, and her heart still racing in her chest. “I-It’s _ not _ ch-children, I-I _ promise...! _”

“_ BULLSHIT. _ ” Coyle growled, extending her ARM to the nearby shelf. “You _ really _ think you can _ test _ me?!” She pulled back a pair of large scissors, grabbed Alice’s hand and pulled it to extend her ARM upward, split the scissors, and put the edge of one blade under one of the many pretty knitted folds that made up her ARMS. “ _ Better start telling me the TRUTH, or you’re gonna REALLY feel it. _”

Min Min winced, wanting to look away, even if she couldn’t. Many ARMS reacted differently to one another. A pair of scissors cutting through knitted fabric, or through something like _ ribbon _, would hurt like utter hell. And it probably wouldn’t heal quickly, either.

“N-NO, P-PLEASE!”

...But scissors would do nothing to Coyle’s ARMS, for example. They were tough and metallic. You’d be lucky to even _ scratch _ them.

“_ THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU DO WITH THE CHILDREN. _”

Meanwhile, the great weakness of her _ own _ ARMS was humidity. She was forever barred from saunas and hot springs, and pretty much any form of hot bath or shower, or she’d find her left ARMS soggy and soft for _ days _. Gross.

“Y-Y-You don’t u-understand!!”

But soggy ARMS were almost certainly better than easily cuttable ARMS. Or ARMS of wood or paper or vine or something - ARMS that’d _ burn _ easily. Hell, both knit and ribbon would probably burn easily too. That’s an _ extremely _ unlucky roll of the ARMS dice, there.

“_ Well you better start MAKING me understand. _”

There were people out there with ARMS made of _ tissue paper. _ Imagine living like that! It’d cut, it’d burn, it’d sog out like crazy even just in rain _ ... Yeesh. _

“I-I-I-It’s _ not _ children, I _ swear! _”

ARMS are great and all, but if you were stuck with ARMS like that, you’d probably be better without having ARMS to begin w- ..._ Oh. _

“_ Enough of this shit. You _ ** _still_ ** _ aren’t taking me seriously, huh? Time I showed you how- _”

“COYLE, STOP!” Min Min gasped, dashing forward and putting a hand to Coyle’s chest, pushing her away from Alice.

Coyle stumbled back, bewildered at the interruption, but remarkably found herself _ not _ already in a motion to throw Min Min into the nearby shelf. This wasn’t just an interruption for Alice’s sake, or because she’d gone ‘too far’, _ no, _ there was _ reason _ behind Min Min’s motion.

“_ ...It’s not the children. _ ” Min Min muttered, _ understanding _ now, down to Alice. “ _ You’re right. _”

Alice looked up at her, her eyes soaked red in tears.

“...Mechanica was targeted _ because she doesn’t have ARMS. _”

Coyle paused, staring at her curiously but cautiously. “_ ...What? _”

“_ Think about it! _ ” Min Min urged. “Have you seen _ anyone _ in this town who _ didn’t _ have ARMS? I went store-to-store and must have seen, what, thirty-something people? _ All of them had ARMS. _ I’m sure of it.”

“So the lack of children...” Ninjara began, the cogs in his head beginning to turn as if finally oiled.

“Most people don’t get ARMS to begin with, but those that _ do _ generally get them some time in their late teens. That’d explain the lack of kids around, right? Not because they’re _ young _ , but because _ they’re too young to have ARMS. _ ” She sighed, a heavy weight lifted off her shoulders as that sense of realisation had _ finally _ hit her.

Alice fell silent, eyes locked on the floor beneath her in something akin to regret. She paused, then she looked away, ashamed. “_...Y-Yes _ ...” She gulped, her throat sore. “...I-I’m sorry, I _ really _ am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, the chapter in which Coyle tortures a person! Jeez, this fic is dark. Maybe we need a bit of a break...?
> 
> Next week's Wednesday is Christmas Day, so Rotting wood will be delayed a week and a drastically more light-hearted Christmas fic will be in its place! ...I haven't actually written it yet though, so if I really don't get around to it you WILL get a Rotting Wood chapter instead after all lol, but let's see what happens.


	9. What She Knows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the major delay in uploads! Should be back to updating on Wednesdays again.

Min Min pulled over a chair and carefully helped Alice onto it. “ _ Listen, _ ” she breathed warmly. “ _ We’ll hear you out. No matter what it is you have to say. _ Just tell us everything you know and we’ll listen,  _ I promise _ .” She turned over her shoulder and looked at Coyle. “ _ Without any interruptions. _ ”

Alice’s chest heaved up and down as her breathing began to slow a bit. She had ignored ‘Good Cop’ Min Min  _ before, _ but after seeing just how bad ‘Bad Cop’ Coyle was she  _ certainly  _ wasn’t going to ignore her now.

“ _ Please. _ ” Min Min nodded in a friendly tone. “We just want to find our friend back. A-And we can  _ stop _ whatever's happening here.  _ You don’t like it happening - _ I can  _ tell. _ ”

“ _ ...You can’t stop it. _ ” She quivered quietly, small teardrops falling from her cheeks. “I-It’s bigger anything you could imagine... A-And you wouldn’t believe me, a-anyway...”

“We just watched that-” Min Min stammered, unsure of the right words. “...Th-That  _ thing _ , the  _ thing  _ that looked like  _ her _ .” She gulped. “We watched it fall apart into s-some sort of  _ corpse pile. _ ” She repressed the urge to throw up again at the memory. “...We don’t really  _ understand _ it all but we’ve sure as hell got open minds.  _ Seriously. _ ”

The idea of a ‘corpse pile’ seemed to make Alice uneasy, as if she hadn’t heard that detail before. With a sigh, she put her head in her hands, leaning forward in her seat. “N-Nooo...” She grumbled. “Th... They’ll  _ kill _ me if I tell you, a-and...”

“ _ And I’ll kill you if you don’t. _ ” Coyle glared, before Min Min made a ‘shoo-ing’ motion at her with her hand.

“ _ Look. _ ” Min Min sighed. “We can  _ help _ you, but you need to help  _ us _ first.” She gently put her hand on Alice’s shoulder, comfortingly. “...You’ve seen this before, right? Y-You’ve seen something like it, a-at the hotel?”

She nodded slowly. “...Tw-Twice...” She sniffled. “...It’s happened twice before. A-At least while I’ve been here.”

“Two other victims.” Min Min nodded.

Alice shook her head. “ _ Three. _ Th-The first was a couple. A man and a woman.”

“When...?”

“A-About two years ago, I think...” She shivered. “I-I’d only worked here a month, m-maybe two... Three, tops.”

“And what happened?”

“They came in looking for a r-room, but I’d been told to turn away people without ARMS. S-So I told them we were fully booked.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “They left, b-but a-apparently they just set up camp out by the lake. They had a t-tent...”

“So they camp out by the lake and then...?” Min Min waited. “...You saw they got taken by someone...? ...Or some _ thing _ ...?”

She shook her head slowly. “They don’t get ‘t-taken’, they leave willingly. L-Like your friend did on the security camera. I-It’s like... A  _ trance... _ ”

A trance...? That sounded...  _ Unnatural,  _ to put it mildly. “And where do they  _ go...? _ ”

She seemed uneasy again, like this was the really  _ taboo _ part she shouldn’t be talking about. “ _ ...Into the forest. _ ”

Min Min fell silent, carefully turning her head to take a look at Ninjara, then to face Coyle. “...Misango mentioned the forest. He said Mechanica...” She bit her lip, feeling afraid again. “...He said she was in there.  _ Still _ in there, even.”

Coyle’s back straightened. She finally had a  _ location _ now . And she could tear down the whole forest, if she needed to. She found herself practicing some patience, however, as even she realized she needed more information first. “What happened next? They came back the next day as corpses?” She urged, pressing for more data.

“I-I don’t...” Alice drummed her fingertips on her foreARM uneasily. “I-I don’t  _ think _ so. The couple had come to town on their own, a-and they  _ both _ went into the forest, s-so I don’t think they had a reason t-to... ‘Come out’ again.”

“It only came after us because we could have taken it out of the town.” Ninjara chimed in, filling in the blanks. It was the only real way to parse that bit of information. “But why’s it wanna get out of the town so badly?”

“The people in the town all have ARMS...” Alice mumbled. “...A lot of people elsewhere  _ don’t _ .”

“So it’s just trying to extend its reach. So it can  _ kill _ more.” Coyle clarified, gruffly. “... _ And you were okay with that? _ ”

Alice went wide-eyed again. “N-No! I-”

“ _ But you let it happen! _ ” She continued. “You were  _ perfectly _ fine with us leaving with that fake Mechanica, knowing full well that it  _ wanted _ to leave the town.”

“ _ Coyle. _ ” Min Min urged quickly. “ _ Relax. _ ”

“Why the hell  _ should _ I?” She grunted, glaring at Min Min. “Didn’t you just  _ hear _ what she’s saying?!”

“Yeah,  _ but we’re just gonna screw our chances of saving Mechanica if we start fighting again. _ ” She rebutted, with a respectful level-headedness. “Just keep your cool, okay?  _ We need the info. _ ”

Coyle let out a drawn-out sigh, but reluctantly agreed with a nod. Her primary objective was to get to Mechanica, after all. She’d keep her cool if she had to.

Min Min turned back to Alice, who seemed to watch Coyle with a distinct unease, like she was worried she’d be pinned to the wall again at any moment. “So the campers disappeared and you were told they went ‘into the woods’ and that was the last you heard of it?”

Alice nodded slowly. “Same kinda thing I heard all the time around town... We came to Redwood -  _ back _ to Redwood, I mean - when I was seventeen. Less than a year after I got my ARMS.” She looked down at her ARMS, almost ashamed of them. “...I worked as a bartender for a little while, a-and people would share  _ stories  _ from time to time. I-I thought for a while that they  _ were _ just stories, u-until-”

“Until the incident with those campers.” Min Min concluded.

She nodded. “First time I’d seen it so...  _ Real. _ With people I had actually interacted with, even...”

“You said your family came  _ back _ to Redwood.” Ninjara butted-in. “What’s so great about this place that they’d want to come  _ back? _ ”

“...For some people, they  _ like  _ that everyone has to have ARMS.” She admitted, again somewhat ashamed. “That’s not really my parents’ view though, I think. In honesty, they just think it’s a nice place to live! The people are nice...  _ To each other, _ I-I mean.” She added, quickly. “A-And crime rates are low, and generally things are...  _ Good. _ ” She sighed. “...Some people think the  _ thing  _ in the forest is making our quality of life better. L-Like, it’s  _ intentionally _ doing it, I mean. I-In some sort of...  _ Otherworldly _ way, y-y’know? Giving us better luck, o-or more bountiful crops, or more energy to survive the day...”

“Maybe.” Coyle remarked, her ARMS folded. “Our resident supernatural expert is  _ elsewhere  _ at the moment, but I figure he could vouch for that kinda thing.  _ That or it’s all in your heads. _ ” She straightened her neck. “Maybe the town is just like any other, but the big ol’ secret  _ unifies  _ you all. Maybe you see the town as ‘better’ as a  _ justification  _ for the things you people  _ allow _ .”

“Hol’ up.” Ninjara added again. “ _ ‘ _ The _ thing _ in the forest _ ’...? _ ” He blinked. “Are we just glossing over that line...?”

Alice frowned. “Just another part of the stories. I-I have no idea if it’s true or not, I’ve never been  _ in  _ the forest myself...”

“Can’t blame you.” Coyle muttered. “You’re clearly a  _ coward. _ ” She clapped her hands loudly, causing a small jump from Alice. “Alright, well, let’s hear about this  _ second _ incident. Just one victim that time?”

“... _ Sort of... _ ” She signed. “Well, I mean... It was another couple. A man and a woman, a-and the woman had ARMS but the man didn’t. This was maybe a year and a half after the first couple, s-so it slipped my mind to check their ARMS, a-and I booked them a room without thinking-”

“And the man left for the forest in the night.” Coyle nodded. “ _ Just like Mechanica. _ ”

Alice nodded back, regretfully. “H-He came right past the desk... I tried to talk with him. To snap him out of it, even - th-that  _ trance, _ I mean. I called for help but he just kept walking.”

“Leaving his wife behind. Still asleep upstairs, I imagine.”

“She was  _ distraught _ the next morning.” She frowned. “R-Rather like you all were. A-And I didn’t know what to tell her, s-so I just kept quiet... A-And then-”

“And then he turns back up again.” Ninjara added. “_But_ _not quite the same._”

“...Y-Yes.”

Min Min turned to face the others. “Do we really have to keep filling in the blanks for her...?  _ Just Let her talk. _ Yeesh.” She rolled her eyes and turned back, earning the back of her head some eye rolls from Ninjara and Coyle in return.

“...Yeah, so, he turned up again.” Alice continued. “A-And she was overjoyed, but he... He  _ smelled. _ REALLY badly, l-like a dumpster full of old meat that’d been left in the sun or something. A-And he was cold, too!  _ Really _ cold. And he just kept saying they had to leave!”

“Just like ‘Mechanica’...” Min Min frowned. “And did they...?”

She nodded. “Left in the same car they arrived in. Redwood was only a pitstop for them - they were going cross-country, I think.”

“So that man - the  _ fake _ man - he left the town  _ and he might still be out there...? _ ” Coyle raised, concerned.

“...” She sighed slowly. “...They recovered the remains of their car a few miles out. Th-They had... Crashed.”

“That ‘illusion’ might have fallen.” Coyle theorized. “Or the smell got her questioning too much. Or maybe it was just an accident after all - it’s hard to really say.” She kicked at the floor lightly, her mind skimming across all she had been told up to this point. “And the car got brought back here, to Redwood? Let me guess -  _ one body and one mound of varied flesh cuts. _ ”

“I-I don’t know, I’m afraid.” She gulped. “They pulled the car up the road. Scrapped it, I think. But no one ever told me if they found bodies, o-or whatever. Probably figured it was better I didn’t know the details...” That was a fair agreement, in honesty. It was  _ her  _ mistake not sending away the ARMless man that technically doomed both he and his wife, after all.

“Complicant town folk. Going as far to cover their tracks, even. This town really  _ is _ a shithole.” Coyle grumbled. “...Anything else we need to know about the second incident?”

“N-Not really, that’s the jist of it...” She admitted. “It’s the last it came up until you guys arrived.  _ A-And I’m really sorry I didn’t turn you all away immediately too! _ ” She sighed uneasily. “I-I  _ did _ check you all for your ARMS, but your friend was wearing gloves. And I-I didn’t realize...”

Min Min turned to the others and folded her ARMS. “...Anything else we need from her? Or are we good to go?”

“Good to go...?” Ninjara raised an eyebrow cautiously.

“Well  _ yeah. _ ” She blinked. “ _ Into the forest. _ We know that’s where Mechanica is so now we have to go and get her.”

“Uhh??” Ninjara motioned. “There’s still an unaccounted for  _ ‘thing’ _ in there that we know nothing about...??”

“ _ We’re just gonna have to take our chances. _ ” Coyle added. “Time could very much be of the essence here -  _ we don’t have time to prepare further. _ ”

“Right.” Min Min nodded.

Ninjara rolled his eyes. “ _ Fine, _ yes, I guess you’re right. I-I’m in too, then.”

“W-Wait!” Alice stammered quickly. “Y-You’re not  _ actually _ going in there, are you...?!” She blinked. “Even  _ I _ don’t know what’s in there, a-and it’s probably  _ beyond _ dangerous and-”

“ _ And it’s none of your concern, Alice. _ ” Coyle corrected swiftly. “As far as you’re concerned?  _ This conversation never happened. _ You last saw us leave the hotel with ‘her’ and then we, ‘for some reason’, went into the forest instead of leaving. If we never come back out, so be it, and if we do then you weren’t around to watch it happen. You weren’t there and you don’t know.  _ Understand? _ ”

“B-But...”

Coyle made her way to the small red box attached to the wall, unlatched its hatch, and removed the first aid kit from within. “You’re gonna run some cold water on your leg, then you’re gonna apply the antiseptic spray and antibiotic ointment -  _ in that order _ \- and wrap it up loosely. Take a painkiller if you need to.” She made a motion to hand the first aid kit to Alice, then pulled it back slightly as Alice went to take it. “... _ And then you go and tell the kitchen staff that you spilled your tea. _ You mention  _ nothing _ about us coming back in here, got it?”

“Y-Yes...” She nodded quickly, thankful at this ‘mercy’ of sorts. She felt like she’d seen a ‘reasonable’ side to the woman, even after how awful she’d been just moments before. She figured this is what stockholm syndrome must be like.

Coyle turned back to the others. “Ready to roll?”

Ninjara shrugged. “Ready as I’ll ever be...”

Min Min nodded. “ _ Into the forest... _ ”


	10. Into the Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know last time I said I'd post weekly again and that was like two months ago but I got ill suddenly and Animal Crossing released so... Whoops.
> 
> Updates uhhhh _frequently_ from now on! With some luck. We're really not that far from the end now. I _might_ be able to finish writing it some time this week, we'll have to see! I def wanna get back into ARMS writing in a major way, though.
> 
> I also have some other smaller-scale fics I'd like to try in the near future, so with some luck I'll be uploading a decent bit soon! Gotta make use of this boosted traffic ever since an ARMS rep was confirmed for Smash. I've been getting Kudos up the wazoo lol, you guys are great :P
> 
> Anyways, apologies for the delay and apologies for this chapter!! ...Seriously, it's a doozy.
> 
> Enjoy <3

Back out of the hotel and into the parking lot. The sun was setting now and pretty soon it’d be pitch black. Just as it had been when they’d first arrived in Redwood the night before.

“ _ Misango! _ ” Coyle smirked as her eyes caught sight of the muscular chief sat cross-legged atop the coach’s roof. “ _ We’re gonna go into the forest to get Mechanica back. _ ”

“Wise.” Misango returned, immediate and unwavering, with his eyes still shut in meditation. “Our window of time to recover the girl is limited. We should avoid further delay.” With that, he got to his feet and hopped down to the tarmac below, in a move that Min Min thought must surely not be kind to the bare soles of his feet.

“Window of time...?” Coyle repeated, raising her head up slightly. “ _ ...Until? _ ”

“Until I fear we will have lost our chance to recover Mechanica.” He clarified. “I imagine her grip on the living world is weakening by the moment.”

“ _ Wait. _ ” She put her hand out to his chest. “ _ You’re telling me she  _ ** _IS_ ** _ alive?! _ ”

“She is.” He nodded. “Misanga can still feel the beat of her heart. It is faint - and she is  _ dying _ \- but it is a slow demise and not yet unpreventable.”

Relief washed over all three of them, which was almost funny given the morbid slant of his news. But what mattered was that she  _ was _ still alive, to some degree. And they could fight tooth and nail to ensure she stayed that way.

“Right!” Coyle straightened, a renewed spring in her step. “We’re gonna go into that forest, get Mechanica back, get her back to the coach, and then we get the  _ hell _ out of this dump.”

“And if that  _ ‘thing’ _ is in there...?” Ninjara questioned, not wanting it to be a forgotten detail.

“ _ Then we’ll kill it. _ If we can, at least.” Coyle answered confidently. “And if not? We get out safely with Mechanica and send a thousand Hedloks back here to tear the town to shreds. Better it left as rubble than to let it keep claiming victims.”

Min Min stepped back out of the coach, lugging with her a silver box taken from within. She had entered with her breath cautiously held, but was pleasantly surprised by Misango’s clean-up efforts - the  _ smell _ was still present, to a degree, but it was otherwise  _ clean. _ “It’s gonna get dark.” She sighed, opening the box and removing the heavy flashlights from within. “If Springtron weren’t stuck at the bottom of the lake...”

They each took a flashlight and turned them on. They were intended for emergencies and by  _ god _ were they bright - Ninjara almost blinded himself simply turning his on.

“Right, gang.” Coyle nodded, talking rather affectionately toward them. There’s nothing like a little shared trauma to bond people together, after all. “ _ Let’s go save our girl. _ ”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The team made their way behind the hotel and past the large still-water lake, heading toward the nearby woods that skirted the town. The woods the locals had told tall tales about for centuries now, with tense warnings not to enter and legends about a mysterious  _ thing. _ There was every chance it’d all be left as mere stories, but hopes among the group weren’t exactly  _ strong  _ to say the least.

The forest began pretty thin, mainly with smaller trees spaced out far apart, in a decidedly un-forest-like manner comparable to the gradient of a shadow. The  _ penumbra _ to the forest’s  _ umbra _ , as it were. Further in, however, the trees began to become taller and thicker, and the spacing between trees grew more and more narrow, until some were practically  _ touching _ one another, covering the sky like a spider's web, almost turning the forest into some sort of maze.

“ _ Yick. _ ” Min Min grumbled. “ _ I don’t like it in here... _ ”

“No kidding.” Ninjara agreed. “...Think I should go up above and search from there?”

“Doubt you’d see anything.” Coyle dismissed. “Foliage is too thick and it’s getting pretty dark. Might be a good idea if we find ourselves separated, though - you  _ should _ be able to spot the flashlight beams.”

“Right.” He nodded back, making a mental note. “So  _ where _ are we going, exactly? Just further ‘in’, with no real direction?”

“Follow my lead.” Misango commanded, taking a large inhale as he began heading forward into the dark of overlapping branch and bush.

They followed closely, making a concerted effort to stay in a group and not get separated. Misango’s leadership proved strong and unfaltering, as if he had known the path from years of walking it before. Could he  _ sense _ Mechanica’s whereabouts? Or  _ smell _ , even? Some say the perpetual prison of gasoline in the air that  _ infests _ city life dulls the nostrils, though given half of what they had smelled earlier that day it wasn’t looking much to be a bad thing now. Still, maybe the answer  _ wasn’t _ as simple as natural life leading to better sustained senses - maybe it was  _ Misanga _ leading them, in truth, and Misango was merely another follower in the chain. That seemed to be the more likely option, as far as Min Min could figure. She had never really believed in that spiritual stuff before, but her mind had been opened quite a bit over the past twenty four hours.

The walk was rather quiet, actually. As uncomfortably eerie as the sound of broken branches under their feet  _ was _ , they really couldn’t muster much of a conversation at a time like this. They were on alert, yes, but that probably wasn’t much of a factor. They just simply couldn’t think of much to talk about. What use would speculation over this dreaded ‘ _ thing _ ’ do them? And was there really much else to brainstorm over? It wasn’t exactly an appopriate time for  _ small talk. _

Min Min watched as Misango, just ahead of her, stepped over the fallen foliage and rough tree bark like it was  _ nothing. _ She gave a shudder for the thought of her own bare feet, immensely glad she had shoes on, and surmised that that probably  _ was _ a bonus of the Misangan natural life -  _ tougher feet. _ It’d take more than a few thorns to pierce through, yet she herself had to be careful walking barefoot around the kitchen after breaking a bowl, lest any ceramic evaded the vacuum and had it out for her. But was tougher feet really so much a bonus that it’d be worth giving up TV and the internet and, well,  _ lightbulbs? _ She wasn’t going to give in too quickly. Not so long as shoes existed.

Her eyes remained fixed on Misango’s steps for a moment.

...Mechanica walked this path. Sometime in the night, in pitch black, she had come through this route in her pajamas - likely with her own feet bare. And she was hardly a Misangan born-and-raised. So young...

Min Min began to consider that, yes, Mechanica could still certainly be alive. But... Would she be  _ unhurt? _ It seemed horrifically unlikely, as much as the thought pained her. She really didn’t deserve to go through all this, even if lucky enough to make it out with just some scratched-up soles and muddy pajamas. None of this shouldn’t have happened to begin with. They could never have predicted this in a  _ million _ years, yes, yet... Min Min felt a strange sense of  _ failure _ . Failure to protect a younger girl who trusted her to keep her safe. It was like she failed at being a big sister, despite no blood relation between them.

She looked back over her shoulder at Coyle, who was following closely. If this was how she herself felt, what was Coyle feeling...? As much as she’d be hesitant to admit it to her out loud, there was definitely a sort of mother-and-child connection between Coyle and Mechanica. She had taken her under her wing, like some sort of protege. There was probably no one else Coyle was closer to at this point in her life. Was Coyle really going to make it out of this without any lasting  _ trauma...? _

She turned back to look ahead of herself. Were  _ any _ of them going to make it out of this without any lasting trauma? After all they’d seen?

“The ground here is plentiful with  _ peat. _ ” Misango informed, breaking the silence, as they headed deeper into the woods. “Decayed plant and vegetation. Soft. Spongey, at times. Watch your steps.”

Min Min could feel her shoes starting to suction into the ground with each step - only slightly, thankfully, but still noticeably. The ground seemed wetter here too. Almost marsh like.

“When you say decayed plants and all that...” Ninjara began, a little uncomfortably. “... _ Just _ plants, or?”

“Histosols are usually formed from dead plants and, yes, dead  _ animals. _ ” Coyle enlightened. “You get a lot of it in spongy wet terrain like this because the water excels plant life, which eventually dies off and mixes with the soil, and then you have animals that get  _ stuck _ and, well, they get  _ incorporated _ too.” She slogged further, glad to be wearing boots. “The more that all mixes together, the more winds up being mixed in. Not a bad setup for an ecosystem.”

“Ah.” Ninjara nodded slowly, his head down as he continued to dredge onward.

“...Why’d you ask?” Coyle questioned after a pause. There was just something about the  _ tone  _ he had asked it in, and this wasn’t exactly a science field trip.

“W-Well...” Ninjara replied uncomfortably, unwilling to elaborate further.

“...It came to my head too.” Coyle admitted. “Something about the way the dirt here  _ squishes _ as you put your foot down... Made me wonder if-” She took a brief pause. “...I-If we were heading to the place she was  _ buried. _ ”

Min Min shuddered, but she had had the same thought too. But she had dismissed it because-

“Misango says she’s alive, so I figure she’s not gonna be in an early grave. That’s my take, anyway.” Coyle continued. “She’s been gone a while now and I doubt her heart would still be going if she were suffocating underground.”

“Exactly what I was thinking...” Min Min nodded, thankful they had come to the same conclusion. Even if she  _ were _ buried, as much as she didn’t like that thought, it wouldn’t be hard for them to dig through this kind of stuff. Not that she was going to say that out loud.

“Yeah, but...” Ninjara continued, an uncomfortable look on his face as he kept his eyes to the squishy muck beneath them as they walked. “...Mechanica’s not the only one who went missing...”

_ They stopped. _ More specifically, Coyle and Min Min stopped almost in sync, followed a moment later by Ninjara and Misango, who stopped only because  _ they  _ had stopped.

Min Min looked up at Coyle, her eyes now wide, shaking a little. “ _ A-Are we walking... O-On dead people right now?! _ ”

Silence filled the air for a moment. “...It’s possible.” Coyle answered quietly, looking down at the soft ground beneath. “We have no idea how long this  _ thing _ has been claiming victims for...”

Min Min shined her light all across the floor around her nervously, as if expecting the rotting head of a man to be lying two steps away from her. “Th-That’s  _ disgusting. _ ” She quivered. Bad enough was the thought that she might have been trudging through the remains of never-found missing person cases, but  _ far _ worse was the realization that Mechanica would have made the same trek the night before  _ barefoot. _

“We must continue.” Misango insisted. “We are nearing the heart of the woods.”

Coyle shined her light on Min Min. “Are you good to keep going...?”

She nodded uneasily.

“Are you sure?” She shined the light between Min Min and Ninjara. “You can head back to town with Ninjara if you need to.”

“I-I’m fine, really.” Coyle’s concern for her wellbeing was both a pleasant surprise and a sign that they were  _ really _ in a horrific situation now. “Let’s keep going...” With some reluctance, she turned back to Misango and pulled her feet from the muck below, trying not to think too much about the  _ grip _ of the mud on her boots. Misango continued on, and as Min Min followed, so did Coyle and Ninjara.

She felt sick again. Not enough to vomit - though she deeply wanted to - but enough to make her head spin. The beam of her light gave her intense paranoia, expecting it to reveal corpse upon corpse everywhere it travelled, though thankfully it never did.

...But there  _ were _ corpses around them. They’d have no doubt counted three by now had they been in daylight.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We are close.” Misango remarked not long later. The night had really taken hold by now, leaving the forest  _ pitch _ black outside of the four highlighting flashlight beams. “We should be coming to a  _ structure _ soon.”

“A structure...? Like a  _ house? _ ” Coyle questioned, expecting to stumble upon some sort of remote cabin. The ‘thing’ in the forest - was it  _ intelligent? _ Could it be a person, however deranged and unforgivable? She’d have some choice words for them, that was for sure.

“I-I think I...” Min Min gulped. “I-Is  _ that _ something, there...?”

The four beams began to overlap around where Min Min’s had shined. There was definitely  _ something _ there. A heaped mound of fallen branches and twisted roots alike, deeply unnatural and unsightly yet somehow  _ far _ from man-made at the same time. Some sort of gigantic hellscape of  _ wood. _ And it was  _ massive.  _ What purpose could it possibly serve...? And just how the hell did it form like this to begin with?

“It is  _ hollow. _ ” Misango commented, passing on information presumably ascertained by his deity. “Not entirely. But a  _ tunnel _ is situated within.” He dragged a bright circle of light from one end of the structure to the other, slowly and methodically. “It is a linear path. It descends deeper as it progresses.” His light came to a stop at the very end of the structure.

Coyle met it with her own. “ _ Is that it? Is that where Mechanica is?? _ ”

He led his light a bit further back along the trail, though only by a tenth or so of its full length. “ _ Here _ is where Mechanica lays.”

Coyle shuddered in relief, her heart throbbing in her chest.  _ She was here. _

Ninjara carefully struck his light to where Misango’s had been just a moment ago. “The end of the tunnel...” He gulped, trying to picture what could be below the surface of the space his ray hit. “...What’s  _ there, _ then...?”

Misango slowly turned his head over his shoulder to look Ninjara in the eye, his expression ever cold and serious. “ _ That is the resting place of her captor. _ ”

The others froze in a deeply petrified stance, as if caught in the headlights of a MAZ-5440, its horn blaring loudly as it barrelled unhaultingly down the road to surely collide with them in horrific tragedy that’d leave no survivors. The  _ thing _ in the forest -  _ it was  _ ** _also_ ** _ here. _ And in order to retrieve Mechanica, they would have to come right in front of it.

“ _ Please _ tell me you know what it  _ is. _ ” Min Min pleaded quietly, shaking. She knew no answer that would be able to calm her, but simply  _ had _ to know regardless.

“I still cannot say.” Misango regrettably replied. “It is a dark power that uses its structure as a  _ cocoon. _ Preventing Misanga from looking within.”

“C-Cocoon...?” Coyle gulped. “Y-You think that thing i-is  _ changing _ it? Th-That it might  _ hatch _ into something worse?!”

“...I have chosen the wrong word, forgive me.” Misango apologized, attempting to reassure them. “I merely mean to say it is using the structure to prevent Misanga from learning of it.”

“Like...  _ A faraday cage? _ ” Min Min considered.

“I am not familiar with the concept.” He responded, plainly.

“I think that’s what he’s getting at.” Coyle answered for him, not bothering to define the term. “Misango -  _ is Mechanica still alive? _ ”

“Yes.” He nodded. “She grows weak but, as I currently understand the situation, she will likely survive these events. Provided we continue with our efforts. And we ourselves survive to bring her to safety.”

“ _ Then let’s go get her. _ ” Coyle nodded, her confidence reinvigorated. Min Min and Ninjara followed up with nods that, comparatively, we’re far more uneasy.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misango led them to the opening of the structure - a gap in the bristle of branches led into by something of a natural  _ ramp _ going lower into the ground. They pressed inside with great concern - their lights swiping around rapidly in paranoia.

“Not far, right...?” Coyle gulped.

“The distance of the tunnel is not particularly long.” He returned. In actuality it was comparable to the length of a football pitch, or thereabouts.

“And it’s a  _ straight _ path, yeah? No twists and turns or anything?” Ninjara followed up,  _ really _ not wanting to get lost in a place like this. He doubted his ability to poof right back out - he hadn’t exactly  _ seen _ his surroundings that well out there, given how dark it was, and that was a pretty big element in his method.

“There are no deviations in the path.” Misango assured. “It is one direction into and out of. One end if the tunnel’s exit. The other is the unholy spirit we have been warned of. And Mechanica is shortly before then.”

“Better  _ really _ keep our eyes peeled for her, then...” Ninjara sweat.

Min Min yelped and stumbled back, her light shooting around quickly as her ARMS jolted in reflex. “ _ FUCK. _ ” She slammed a hand over her mouth, shutting her eyes tightly, and continued to swear as her hand muffled the sound. “ _ Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. _ ”

Coyle carefully put a hand to her shoulder and lightly held it. She could see Min Min’s knees were shaking rapidly now. Tears were seeping through her tightly shut eyes. “Min min,  _ relax... _ ” She urged as cautiously as she could. “ _ Tell us what’s wrong. _ ”

“I- ...Um...” Ninjara swallowed, falling still. “...There’s a body over there.”

Coyle looked toward him, then at his flashlight, then followed its beam across the air until it came to its stop. There, at the end of the beam, just as Ninjara had said, lay the remains of a body - a boy, likely around age 14 at the time of his death, and likely dead for at least two years. “ _ God. _ ” Coyle gulped. She was familiar with the sight of cadavers - again, she had briefly worked at a morgue - but this was  _ nothing _ like what she had seen before. This was unrelenting  _ decay. _

Ninjara carefully moved his light around, slowly and methodically, trying his best to ascertain a clear path  _ around _ it. “...There’s another...”

Coyle noted this one too - a woman, likely in her late 30s. Dead for three or four years, as best she could figure. “ _ We need to keep going. _ ” She gulped. “The sooner we get Mechanica, the sooner we leave.” She turned back to Min Min. “ _ You can leave if you need. _ You can wait for us at the entrance.”

“I-I’m good.” Min Min stammered, slowly opening her tear-soaked eyes as her lip quivered. “I-I’ll keep goin... I can keep going...”

They continued on their way. More bodies began to litter the path. Men and women of varying ages and appearances. Some so worn and rotted that Coyle couldn’t even begin to assume a time of death, or in some cases, the sex.

“We are at the halfway point.” Misango solemnly informed.

The bodies began to appear in  _ piles. _ They overlapped and spooned limply, as if cast aside and left wherever they had landed. The extent of this ‘ _ thing’s _ ’ killing spree became clearer and clearer the deeper they went - there were  _ dozens _ of victims. They had passed around fifty or sixty at this point. An utterly  _ staggering _ amount of lives lost.  _ Innocent _ lives. The lives of  _ people _ who each had dreams and aspirations and each had loved ones who would never know of their demise. Whatever  _ it  _ was, it was sick and twisted, and unabashedly  _ evil. _

The stench was intense and revolting, but in some ways it felt too strong to really  _ accept _ . Too strong to have the same subtle  _ disgust _ to it that ‘Mechanica’s’ body had had earlier that day. A slight mercy. It was still enough to churn their stomachs, but it could be assumed that their bodies would not  _ allow  _ for vomiting right now - an aspect of their ‘fight or flight’ reflexes coming forth, a plan etched on both options, their bodies literally  _ forcing _ them to ‘fight’ their way deeper into the structure ever on guard, then preparing to escape in ‘flight’ until they were well out of this forest. Then, most probably, they would each lose the contents of their stomachs one after the other, once their bodies had ‘settled’ to the retrieved safety and had a chance to reprocess their experiences again. PTSD after a horrific event. It kicks in only when you feel free enough to  _ reflect. _ Nature is too cruel to give you a chance to catch your breath.

They were silent as they crept forward. It would be no use to talk here - it would only be worth speaking now if they had found Mechanica... Or if they had found  _ it. _ Speaking for any other reason would merely add tension, not remove any. And at worst all it would do is  _ distract. _ It would be helping no one.

...And then Ninjara spoke. As they delved deeper into the structure, carefully placing their steps  _ around _ the limp legs and faces of fallen victims, wherever a clear space to gain footing lied, Ninjara brought the beam of his flashlight dead ahead for just a moment and reacted with a searing sharpness in his spine. “What... The  _ hell... _ Is  _ that? _ ” He muttered as quietly as his trembling heart would allow.

They each froze in place, looking ahead at the display at the end of the structure. There, in place, seemingly  _ levitating, _ hung the aged corpse of a woman in a stained white dress. She had rotted and decayed so far that she must have died decades - no, _ CENTURIES _ ago. Easily the oldest of any corpse here, and seemingly by quite a stretch.

“I-It’s  _ disgusting... _ ” Coyle muttered equally quietly, shining her light slowly over the woman’s body as Ninjara’s lay still on its strange, almost artificial-looking face. Lower down there appeared to be signs of animals having  _ feasted _ on it, but for the past however long it seems it was now the meal of the  _ bugs _ instead. Rancid and forgotten to time. 

A third beam passed over it, as the fourth carefully checked around the remainder of the room in horrific paranoia. The third light came to the corpse’s head and then slowly began to rise higher above it, to the empty space where nothing lay. “...Ah.” Misango muttered quietly, watching the empty space. Not  _ assured  _ \- not  _ answered  _ \- but... Informed.

Coyle’s light slipped along the woman’s chest and moved toward her shoulders. Her arms were pinned up, though not through any clear means she could see, and she was left in something of a crucified pose - but far more  _ limp. _ Sort of like a scarecrow or a shirt hung up on a washing line. But there was something  _ off _ about her arms in particular. Something about the way her mank and cracked skin reflected the light, leaving-

Min Min gasped as her light illuminated a nearby body. She immediately began to climb her way toward it, still careful of her foot placements, but far quicker and more elated.

Coyle turned to it, then her eyes lit up and she too began making her way toward it. “ _ Y-You’ve found her...!! _ ” She gasped, but still keeping her voice in something of a hushed tone. “Holy  _ shit _ , you’ve actually  _ found her!! _ ”

There, but for the grace of God, lay Mechanica. Dressed still in her blue pajamas, now stained with mud and other filthy, and laying limp alongside the other bodies littering the lair.

Min Min stood above her, a hand covering her mouth in disbelief, as she kept the light shakily illuminating her among the rest. It was Coyle who got down to her first to properly ‘check’ her. She was anything but awake, as expected, but she was  _ warm  _ \- and with a quick beneath check her nose and a search for a pulse on her neck- “ ** _She’s alive._ ** ” Coyle quietly blurted, intensely relieved, feeling as though she herself had just been awarded back another decade of life while laying on her deathbed. “S-She’s alive,  _ she’s okay...” _

Min Min felt her throat gagging again. Tears began to stream down like rivers from her eyes. “ _ H-H-H-Her a-arms... _ ”

Coyle looked down from Mechanica’s face and felt her heart skip a beat. There, with the illumination of a few flashlights, lay Mechanica’s arms. Broken and splintered in several places _ . _ The sharp fragments of her bones split the skin, leaving jagged gashes of muscle and coagulated blood. It was easily the worst injury Coyle had ever laid witness to. Like a particularly bad fall from a skateboard, but several times over. They were  _ intentional _ brakes. As if snapped over one’s knee like a plank of wood. Again and again and again. And again. And again. And again.

“ _ I-I-Is she going to b-be okay?! _ ” Min Min sobbed, shaking uncontrollably. She felt as though her stomach was throwing up into itself. Like it didn’t have the control to actually expel upward and out of her throat.

Coyle gulped, doing her best to keep calm, and relying heavily on that  _ doctorate _ side of her - rather than the side of her that felt compassion, emotion, and an element of motherhood. “...I-I can fix her up, y-yeah. I... I don’t know yet how bad it all is, yet, b-but with enough time and attention, a-and some _ metal plates _ ... And a  _ shit _ ton of rest, medication, follow-up examinations... S-She’ll have her arms back. I-I  _ think. _ ”

“Can we  _ please _ get the hell out of here?!” Ninjara whimpered, deeply uncomfortable with the thought of whatever could have done this to her - or to  _ any _ of the other nearby victims, at that. Whatever  _ it _ was, it didn’t seem to be home right now. No monster or demon or  _ beast _ to be seen.

Coyle scooped up Mechanica as best she could, thankful that her legs seemed to be unharmed and, at a glance, the rest of her seemed equally unharmed too. She cradled her carefully, taking extra attention to not pressure her broken arms unnecessarily. “ _ Let’s go. _ ”

Ninjara pointed his light to his feet to carefully watch his stepping, then froze suddenly as a shadow slipped across the room. A lifeless limb from the tunnel’s floor had  _ moved. _ Ever so slightly, though clear enough to know it wasn’t the wind or some trick of the mind, but a natural movement of a leg controlled by a central nervous system in a functioning brain. Not that that was possible here, given the level of decay.

He looked up at the others uneasily, but they had all seen it. They suddenly became  _ distinctly _ aware that the assortment of corpse parts that had made the fake ‘Mechanica’ early on had all come from bodies very much like those around them now, if not the very same ones. She had been an animated corpse.

A corpse that could move. And act. And, arguably,  _ think. _

Coyle looked at Ninjara wide-eyed, visibly shaken as she cradled Mechanica. “We need to leave...” She quietly commanded. “...And we need to leave  _ quickly. _ ”

The four of them - now with Mechanica in hand - began to scurry their way back for the exit, doing their utter best to avoid stepping on the bodies that lay in their paths. They could see now, clear as their flashlights would allow, that some of the bodies  _ were _ moving. Some were beginning to sit up, or to turn in place,  _ or to struggle to their feet. _ Their eyes seemed void and empty, but they moved like living people, slow and imperfectly but only  _ for now. _

All care for avoiding treading on the dead was now lost, and the group began to high-tail it out of there as quickly as they possibly could. Bodies were  _ standing _ now, and it became clear that their arms were just as split and cracked as they had found Mechanica’s. This is what  _ it _ was doing to them - taking them away, breaking their arms horrifically, then leaving them there to join the pile until the next victim arrived.

Through whatever luck they had been mercifully granted with, the four escaped the confines of the structure and left into the open forest at an intense and adrenaline-fueled pace. They took no moment to rest, instead continuing out as quickly as they could, lest they’d find themselves followed by the horrific atrocities they had just evaded.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After enough sprinting to cover a professional athlete’s whole career, they found the forest’s trees beginning to spread further and further apart. They had entered the penumbra again, bringing in the open air once more to gracefully wash away the forest’s claustrophobia as they came further and further out.

Their pace slowed somewhat, though not by much. They had gotten what they’d come for - Mechanica,  _ real _ and  _ alive _ and  _ warm _ \- and were now fully intending to follow through with the second part of their plan and get the  _ hell _ out of there.

They finally left the strangulation of the trees, out into the open once more, and basked in the illumination of the moonlight. The way it lit up the town in a soft white glow, and the way it shimmered off the lake’s surface like glitter... It was  _ magical.  _ A taste of freedom they’d never felt before.

The parking lot was in sight now.  _ They were almost home free!  _ They passed by the lake. First Coyle, then Ninjara, then Misango, then Min Min.

...But Min Min slowed somewhat, if only briefly, as something caught her eye. Just  _ slightly, _ right from the corner of it. There appeared, for whatever reason, to be a  _ light _ beneath the lake. A shining blue that faded out in a radial cloud like lightning in a storm. She looked up at the sky, expecting to see something there, as if the lake’s surface was merely reflecting the light, but there was no source for it up above them. It was coming from  _ beneath _ the lake.

She turned her head forward again.  _ She was almost there -  _ nothing else mattered right now. She was ready to leave this town behind as nothing more than a sick memory.

As they arrived at the coach, Ninjara poofed his way behind its door and opened it from within, bypassing the need to fish out their key. Coyle climbed inside and set Mechanica down at the bench before the table - right where Min Min had been sat before they had broken down almost 24 hours ago now.

She checked her wounds again. She’d have to do a lot of work on mending her bones, yes, but it was certainly doable. It was the kind of thing that’d be  _ absurdly _ expensive at  _ any _ hospital around the globe, but it’s not like Mechanica would have to pay Coyle for this. It was, as far as Coyle was concerned,  _ her _ fault Mechanica got into this mess to begin with anyway - it’s the bare minimum she could do now.

A bigger concern would be her open wounds. The place where her bones had split the skin, opening up to her muscle tissue and ligaments, could be a gateway for infection... And she had just spent the better part of a day  _ surrounded by decaying corpses. _ She would have to set Mechanica on some  _ strict _ medication, with very regular check-ups and reevaluations, if the worst came to the worst. But she was pretty sure she could handle that too.

...She was really glad to be able to address the situation in a  _ scientific  _ manner again. Relying on her doctorate was  _ so _ much easier than the hell she’d just gone through.

Min Min shut the door behind her as she entered behind Misango. She put her back to it and began to pant,  _ exhausted _ from the run out of the forest, just as they all were.

“ _ Min! _ ” Coyle yelped, giving a quick look over her shoulder at her. She fished in her pocket and produced the coach’s keys. “ _ Get us the  _ ** _hell_ ** _ out of here. _ ”

She caught the keys as Coyle threw them to her. “ _ Gladly. _ ” This was it! They were  _ finally _ going to leave! They were  _ finally _ going to put this horrific place behind them!

Min Min approached the front of the coach, only to stop after a couple steps. There, ahead of her, stood Misango, _intentionally_ _blocking the driver’s seat._

“ _ O-Outta the way, Misango! _ ” She stammered.

He looked down at her with a tinge of  _ apology _ in his eyes.

“I-I said  _ o-outta the w-way...! _ ” She could feel herself shaking again.  _ Why? _

He didn’t budge.

“O-OUT OF THE  _ FUCKING _ WAY!” She began to sob, now with Coyle and Ninjara’s attention. “ ** _MOVE!!_ ** ”

Once more, he did not budge.

“...Don’t do this.” Her lower lip quivered,  _ knowing _ what this meant. “ _ P-Please _ ...”

“W-What’s going on...?” Coyle butted in.

Misango turned to face her. “...We cannot leave yet.”


	11. Afternoon Lunch

“_W-Why not?!_” Min Min sobbed, tears welling in her eyes. “Haven’t we been through enough?! **_I JUST WANT TO BE DONE WITH THIS._**”

“What’s going on...?” Coyle raised, standing to her feet from Mechanica’s side. “_ Why _ can we not leave yet...? We’ve got Mechanica-” She motioned toward the unconcious girl. “This _ is _ her. No illusion, no corpse. She’s _ warm. _ She’s _ breathing. _ She’s-”

“She isn’t going to wake up.” Misango interrupted, bluntly.

“..._ Shit!! _ ” Min Min gritted through her teeth, squeezing her own face with her hands. They really weren’t going to be getting _ any _mercy today, huh?

Coyle paused for a long moment, bewildered. “A-And...” She gulped. “And why _ not? _”

Misango slowly walked to Mechanica’s side and looked above her. “You three do not see these, do you?”

Coyle and Ninjara looked at each other, puzzled. “See... _ What? _” Coyle blinked.

The Misangan chief put his hand out slowly and carefully pinched the air above the sleeping girl. “There are _ strings _ coming from Mechanica.” He ran his fingers up on the invisible strings. “They are made of a blinding white light. They rise into the air and fade out unseen.” He looked up at the coach’s roof above them. “...But they continue further. Through all matter above. Up and into the sky. And further beyond from there.”

“S-Something in the sky is connected to her...?” Ninjara put together. “O-Or in _ space? _ A-Are we fighting _ aliens?! _”

Misango looked over the strings again - the strings only _ he _ could see. “ _ It is in the forest. _ And this is its way of connecting to her from afar. No matter what distance Mechanica goes, it will hold on through these strings.” He turned to look at Coyle specifically. “As long as it is holding onto her, nothing we do will awaken her. And she will not heal from her wounds. And she will eventually die.”

Min Min shivered. “C-Cut the strings...?” They each turned to face her. “...Y-You said they were _ strings... _ Can you cut them? J-Just _ cut them. _ ” Somehow she didn’t think it’d be easy, but she still needed to ask. She _ had _ to.

Misango looked between each of them again, staying silent for a moment. “...The strings cannot be cut from this side. We would need to sever them from their connection to the creature itself. From within the forest.”

The very notion of returning to that hellhole was enough for Min Min to feel like blacking out. But she held on.

“I also do not believe it will be possible for mortals such as ourselves to sever the strings. We are dealing with something much beyond ourselves.” Misango continued. “...But I am a vessel through which Misanga is able to view the world. When we entered into its structure... _ Misanga was able to see within _ . Breaking the protection of its ‘faraday cage’ _ . _”

“_ Okay. _” Coyle nodded slowly. “So Misanga can help us out, then? You gonna have a chat with him or...?”

He paused for a moment. “...I believe it would be best for all four of us to speak with Misanga. We are dealing with something very strong - it would be unwise to put all our eggs into one basket, so to speak.”

“I thought only Misangans could speak to ‘the big man upstairs’...?” Ninjara nervously added.

“Ordinarily, yes. A _ two-way connection _is required. And Misanga will typically ignore those without Misangan birthright.” Without much notice, Misango placed himself behind Min Min and gently guided her to a more central spot in the coach. “This is not an ordinary situation, however. Given the circumstances, Misanga will share with you a deeply communicative vision the likes of which are only otherwise shared with Misangan chiefs like myself.” He moved Ninjara in a similar way, placing him opposite Min Min, facing the two together. “It may be hard to withstand, but I ask that you do your best to stay conscious until Misanga has shown you all they would feel you must see.” He did not move Coyle, but instead took his own place and waited for Coyle to fill in the blank.

She cautiously stood before him, with Min Min to her left and Ninjara to her right, causing the four of them to form something of a circle. “So how exactly do we make Misanga appear...?”

“We do not. _ You _ will be appearing to Misanga. Not the other way round.” He clarified, closing his eyes.

“Right...” Coyle sighed. “Wel, this should be inter-”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Next thing I know?” Spring Man continued, nabbing another _ cheesy fry _ from the paper basket sat on the table. “ _ KERBOOM!! _ ...Fire Bomb right behind me. Didn’t see it for a _ second. _”

“Awww, _ what?! _ ” Min Min scoffed. “That’s _ so _ bull, dude! And you lost the match from that?!” She picked up a fry from the shared plate and looked at it for a moment. She had intended to put it right into her mouth... But there was something _ off _ about. She wasn’t quite sure _ what... _

“_ Yep. _ ” Spring Man sighed, deflating a little. “But kudos to Twintelle, y’know? Like, I was _ already _ down to the red so it’s not like I think she was being cheap or whatever.”

“Sometimes I wonder if it’d be unfair to build a bomb sensor in my mech...” Mechanica smiled, half joking, as she pinched a fry for herself. “It’s usually the electric ones that get me, though.”

“Bleh, yeah, I hate those.” Min Min sighed. “It’s _ always _ followed up by a grab. Every single time. And grabs are like ten times worse when you know they’re coming!” She stared at Mechanica for a moment, watching her reaching for the shared plate they surrounded. Her arms... _ They looked perfectly normal. _ Well, just as they always did. That wasn’t exactly something _ notable... _ So why did she feel so fixated on them...?

“Getting grabbed makes me rattle around a bunch.” Mechanica giggled. “I added stabilizers a long while ago but before then I’d pretty much get whiplash every time I got chucked!”

“‘Least you’ve got a bit of a safety shell! I tell ya, landin’ on your shoulder from a grab...” Spring Man chewed. “I don’t get why I’m _ fine _ getting my legs scraped, ass thumped, head conked... But when I land on my shoulder? It’ll ache for _ days! _”

“Both shoulders or just the one?” Mechanica asked. “If it’s just the one, I guess you’ve got a weak shoulder?”

“Naw, _ both! _ ” Spring Man smiled. “I guess it’s my weak-point. I probably should have kept it to myself, _ eek! _”

Min Min, who had found her eyes unfocusing as she stared mindlessly into space, shook her head and tried to snap out of her daze. “Y-Yeah,” She attempted to join. “Ribbon’s always going on about that too... I-I think...” She looked down at the fry in her hand, unsure of why she’d been _ playing with it _ for so long. She took a breath, took a bite, and tried to stop feeling so _ weird. _

“Well anyways - _ you’ve got a match comin’ up, _ kid.” Spring Man nodded toward Mechanica. “How you feelin’ ‘bout Helix? Ready to get _ glooped? _”

She shrugged. “I should be fine. He can be slippery but I _ think _ I’ve beaten him more than he’s beaten me. It’s been a little while since I checked my records... It could go either way, I guess.” Her straw crackled as she took a sip from her soda. “Which I’m fine with.”

“Yeahhh, not a high-stakes match.” Spring Man nodded. “Just have fun with it.”

Min Min felt sick. It was such a beautiful day... Why did it feel so _ wrong? _ Why did the fry in her mouth have the consistency of _ sand? _ Why was the fry shop so _ empty? _ Why was the whole damn STREET so _ empty? _

“_ Mm! _ ” Spring Man motioned, having remembered something. “Stick around if you’ve got time after your match - I’m goin’ up against _ Cinemaiden _in Hoops.” He made a little swishing motion with his hands. “Should be fun!”

“_ Ohhh! _ ” Mechanica grinned, ear-to-ear. “That sounds great! _ Look for me in the crowd _.” She giggled warmly. The way that Mechanica always did.

Min Min wiped a tear from her eye. She was sad. So very, very _ sad _.

Spring Man took a handful of fries and scoffed them. “Just don’t expect me to win. Smaller targets are harder to grab! They slip right through your fingers.” He motioned a thumb at Mechanica, still talking as he chewed. “Come to think of it, you could probably score it big-time in Hoops if you left ya mech behind.”

“_ One day! _ ” Mechanica smiled. “When I no longer _ need _ the mech in order to actually grab.”

He shrugged. “If you play defense the whole time and just don’t get grabbed _ yourself _ you can at least score a draw!” He winked at her. “Which, to me at least, counts as a win for-”

“Stop.” Min Min muttered, her eyes glossed over as she stared unfocusedly into the distance again. “S... Stop t-talking...”

“Something wrong...?” Spring Man looked to her, concerned.

“...” Min Min stayed silent for a moment. Without the two of them chatting away, the world was pin-drop quiet. It was _empty._ “...The... Um...” She gulped, feeling painfully sick again. “_...Cinemaiden quit the ARMS League l-like... Years_ ago...” She looked up to the others, who were looking at her with deep concern. “_...She left before Mechanica even joined the League._”

“...Ah.” Spring Man smiled, warmly yet uneasily. “M-My mistake.”

The three remained silent for a moment.

“...A-And...” She began again, uneasily. “...A-And we’ve _ done this already. _ W-We had this whole lunch thing a couple months ago... Only the streets weren’t empty, a-and, it felt... _ Real... _ ” She bit her lip, pausing again. “ _ ...None of this is real, is it? _”

...Spring Man slowly put a hand out to Min Min’s on the table, resting it atop hers gently. “...Are you ready to talk?”

She blinked, more tears falling from her face. “Y-You’re... You’re not...”

He shook his head slowly.

She gulped. “S-So you’re...”

He nodded.

She put her face in her palms. “W-We’re still in this _ mess _ . I-I can’t just _ leave _ . W-We can’t just _ wake up _ from it all...”

“I wish it were that easy.” Misanga continued in Spring Man’s relaxed and supportive voice. “I’m sorry if it feels I’ve tried to _ fool _ you. In honesty I just didn’t want you to be overwhelmed.” He smiled nervously. “Though I’m not exactly _ good _ at talking to non-Misangans, so I may not have been much convincing anyway...”

She sniffled, then wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “A-Am I dreaming right now? I-Is that what’s happening...?”

“Sort of. I guess you could think of it like that, yes.” He nodded. “Though it’s not really the same as _ dreaming. _ You’re still very much awake.”

Min Min turned to Mechanica, who was now motionless, as if frozen in time. “Sh-She’s h-hurt...”

“I know.” Spring Man frowned. “She really didn’t deserve any of this. She’s a good kid...” He put his hand to her cheek, pitying her.

“...Y-You...” She gulped again. “You can _ help _ us, right?? ...Y-You can help _ her? _”

“I’ll do what I can. But I need your help just as much as you need mine.” He sighed, drumming his fingertips on the surface of the table for a moment. “...We’re in a difficult situation. I’ve never encountered something like this before. And I’m _ pretty old. _ ” He looked away. “If I have the four of you go back into those woods then I might be sending you to your deaths. _ But on the other hand _ we don’t necessarily have a lot of _ time _ to prepare to fight this. Especially if we want to ensure Mechanica’s survival...” He scratched the back of his neck. “No matter what we do we’ll be taking a _ risk. _”

“...I-I want her to be okay.” Min Min quivered. “Th-That’s my main concern. I-I want her to be okay, and-” She looked at Mechanica again. “...A-And I’ll take whatever risks I need to f-for that.” She was young. _ So _ young. And she’d never done anything wrong to _ anyone. _ She simply couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t do _ everything _ she could to bring her back safe. Not to mention _ Coyle _ wouldn’t stand for it.

Spring Man leant back in his seat. “...You’re an interesting one, Min Min.” Misanga commented, watching her. “It’s been really eye-opening to see so much more of the world since Chief Meren joined the ARMS League. I’ve found humans to be so... _ Simple, _ at the core.” He watched her. “...But every so often, along comes someone like _ you _ . It’s _ surprising. _”

Min Min looked back bewildered, her eyes stricken with tears. “...W-What’s special about me...?”

He shrugged, offering only a small smile. “_ Not much. _” 

Min Min smiled back. The first genuine smile in a _ while, _ she figured. After a brief pause she sighed sadly, turning her attention once more to Mechanica. “...What do we do to save her? T-To stop the thing in the forest?” She turned back to him again. “Misango said something about _ strings...? _”

Spring Man nodded. “There are nine strings of light connecting her body to the _ opposing energy _ in the forest structure. You can see them yourself.”

He nodded toward Mechanica, and when Min Min turned to look, she found she could now see them herself - nine _ impossibly _ thin white strings reaching up into the sky.

“Oridinarily they’re _ hidden _ from your natural sight. Human beings don’t have enough _ stuff _ in their eyes to see them - you need something _ special _ in your brain. A sort of filter.” He shrugged. “Right now, that’s _ me. _”

“O-Okay... A-And if we cut them somehow...?” Min Min pushed, eyes locked on the bizarre strings she could now see. “F-From here- from _ her, _ I mean? Th-That doesn’t work?”

He kicked back his chair suddenly, skidding it against the floor as he got up. He approached the frozen Mechanica and stood by her side. “Now, this is really just a _ demonstration _ \- the real deal is a _ bit _ more complicated.” He produced a small pair of scissors from Spring Man’s back pocket, separated the blades around one of the strings, and _ snipped _them closed.

The higher end of the string fizzled up into the sky like a lit firework fuse, while the other side fell limp to the ground, and equally fizzled out into Mechanica’s head. Then, a mere second later, the string faded back into view, just as it had been before being severed.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Misanga studied. “What a _ hold _ it has. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen something so _ persistent. _ ” He made his way to sit back down again. “...We _ have _ to sever the connection at its _ source. _ Otherwise it’ll keep regrowing forever - no matter how many times we cut it.”

Min Min nodded slowly. She had figured about as much. “A-And how do I cut the strings? I-I mean, I’ll be able to _ see _ them now, I-I guess...?” She paused, only continuing when Spring Man nodded back at her. “...But I still don’t know how I’m supposed to _ cut _ them. Scissors aren’t gonna cut it for real, right??”

Spring Man laughed in a friendly manner - the way Spring Man was known to. “That’d be lovely, but I’m afraid it _ is _ going to take more than that. But that’s where I’ll be _ assisting _ you.” He flashed his hands up at her. “...But don’t worry about that bit! It’ll come when the time is right. I’m _ very _ good at timing.”

“...Cool...” Min Min sighed, feeling a little relieved but still entirely lost. “I... I’m not sure I even know what else to say now.” She scratched an itch on the back of her head. “Are you gonna tell Coyle and the others about all this...?”

“_ I’m doing that now. _ ” He smiled. “I’m great at multitasking. Timing _ and _ multitasking! I’d probably be a _ chef _if I weren’t a God.”

She smiled a small smile, tapping her fingertip at the table mindlessly. “...You are _ nothing _ like I expected you to be.”

“Oh?”

“Well I figured you’d be... I dunno, some _ giant _ man with an ox head a-and a six pack and...” She shrugged, not really knowing _ what _ to expect.

“Well,” he laughed, “That’s not exactly _ right, _ but it’s true I’m not _ usually _ Spring Man. Even right now, to your friends, I’m both _ Melanie Whitlock _ and _ Hitoshi Long. _ I could be a hundred thousand people at once, if I wanted to be. I just took the look and mannerisms of someone you find comforting. Figured that’d be best to approach you with right now. I do find that’s the kind of thing humans _ like. _”

“...I don’t know who either of those people are.” Min Min mumbled.

“_ Ah. _ ” He nodded. “Mr. Long is Ninjara’s father and you know Melanie as _ Lola Pop _.”

Min Min’s eyebrow raised, her dulled senses coming to her for only a moment. “...So Coyle is speaking to _ Lola? _ How in the hell did you think _ that _ would comfort her?”

“They’re closer than you think.” He smiled. “She’s quite a different person when she’s not ‘performing’. Really quite lovely.”

“Wow...” Min Min sighed. “That’s somehow the craziest thing I’ve heard all day...” She looked at the clouds above, motionless but as _ fluffy _ as ever _ . _“...I-Is time passing right now?”

“Hm?”

“Wh-While I’m here with you? Like,” She adjusted herself in her seat. “Like am I wasting time right now? Time we could be using to help Mechanica...?”

“...I wouldn’t really call it _ wasting _ .” He struggled. “You’re taking a moment to relax - and that’s _ good! _”

“But time is still flowing, right? I-I’m still standing in the coach right now, a-and when I ‘wake up’ it’ll be a few minutes later? O-Or however long I spent doing... _ This? _”

With some reluctance, Spring Man nodded.

“W-Well, okay,_ then I don’t want to waste any more time!! _” She stood up quickly, pushing her chair back as she did. “T-Take me back to the coach.”

“Min Min...”

“_ No, _ listen to me Spri-” She paused, shaking her head. “ _ Misanga... _P-Please.” Her lip was quivering again. “I-I don’t want to waste time.”

Misanga, who she was finally starting to recognise differently to the Spring Man form it was taking, seemed to sigh uncomfortably. “_ ...There’s something else I need you to see before I can send you back. _ And I really don’t think it’s going to be a pleasant experience, so I _ wanted _ you to relax a bit first...”

“_ I-I’m done relaxing!! _ ” Min Min huffed. “I-I don’t even _ like _ this place. Th-this place isn’t relaxing - _ you sat my mutilated friend beside me and pretended she was okay! _”

“Okay, okay, _ calm down- _”

“_ No! _ ” She scoffed. “...A-And quit with the Spring Man look!! I-It’s _ creepy _ to take someone else’s face like that. A-Appear as you _ actually _ are!”

“_ You don’t want that. _ ” He laughed, a little forced. “I _ really _ don’t think you’d be able to _ handle _that.”

Min Min put her hands to her face. “I’m done with the dream... _ I’m done with the dream. _ ” She straightened her back. “ _ ...Time to get moving. _ Wh-Whatever it is you want me to see, _ h-hurry it up. _”

...Misanga sighed. “Alright.” He slowly stood back up, mumbling under his breath. “I gotta say, Fei, you’re _ really _ something...” He came around the table, past Mechanica, and stood opposite her. “I’m going to show you a highlights reel. Only the _ crucial _ bits. Eough to get you a good understanding of what started this mess, okay?” He gently moved her shoulders and straightened her ARMS. “Do your best to pay attention but _ focus _ on standing firmly. Humans _ really _ aren’t meant to be subject to this kinda thing. It’s going to be hard to stomach - _ in more ways than one _ \- so just do your best, Okay? Chief Meren will fill you in on anything you missed.” Content with his preparations, he looked her one last time in the eyes. “...Anything else before we begin?”

Min Min gulped, taking a moment to get the words out. “...I-If anything were to happen to me, w-would you let Ribbon Girl know?” She gulped. “A-And my family...?”

...He bit his lip. “...If something happens to you _ in the forest, _ then... _ Y-Yes, _ I _ guess _ , since you’re doing me a _ favour _ here...” She got the feeling that he didn’t really want to agree but felt obligated to. She wasn’t sure if he’d _ actually _ keep his word. “...Try to stay positive, okay?”

She nodded, and honest to God did she try.

He gave one last smile - a bright, _ Spring Man _ smile. And she really hoped she’d see his face again some day soon. Because, for all she knew, she might _ not _.

...Spring Man faded away. As did Mechanica, and the clouds, and the street, and the table, and the fry shop.

A wind began to swirl around her. And the wind grew, and grew, and _ grew. _ It became a massive _ twister _ within moments - painfully loud to her ears, almost _ deafeningly _ so. The wind ravaged her body like a flurry of twisting punches. She stumbled, unsure how her feet even remained on the ground.

...And then the wind began to clear. The noise began to quiet. And she was in a small room... Some sort of _ cabin. _

...And she was not alone.


	12. Woodwork

Min Min turned to the woman sat at the table in the corner of the room. She felt supremely  _ awkward  _ \- she had, after all, just suddenly  _ appeared _ here. Kinda went against knocking first, right?

“...H-Hello...” Min Min stammered, hoping she wouldn’t startle her. But the woman didn’t respond - nor did she turn to face her.. “...H-Hi? I-I’m... I’m  _ Min Min _ ...” Once more, the woman simply didn’t seem interested.

Min Min paused, looking around the room. It was some sort of  _ cabin, _ judging by the log walls and the panelled floor, and that log cabin sorta  _ smell _ you’d expect. The smell of  _ nature _ . But not  _ feral _ nature - nature enjoyed in a civilized yet _relaxed _manner.

Taking some care not to startle the woman, Min Min crept to the nearby window. It was dark out. Some time in the late evening or right in the dead of night. Not much could be seen outside save for the nearby trees and some lights from the windows of other nearby cabins.

She turned back to the room and looked at the cackling fireplace beside the woman. It's hot orange glow was the only thing keeping the room lit, but it was doing a  _ great _ job. The same orange glow had been coming from the neighbouring cabins’ windows too. They all had a fire going?

She turned her attention upward, then around the various walls of the cabin.

...No lightbulbs. No light switches. Either they were  _ really _ old school here... Or she was in a different era in  _ time. _

She looked out the window again, hoping to stop a landmark. She didn’t really know what she was hoping for. Some sort of signpost? Somehow visible in the dead of night? Or perhaps some particularly unmissable silhouette in the distance, like the Statue of Liberty or the Great Pyramids of Giza.

...She was disappointed in herself. Tired though she had been, she’d  _ hoped _ she’d be smarter than to expect something like that out in the middle of nowhere, probably back a thousand years or something.

...But, to her surprise,  _ right  _ before she turned back, she actually  _ did _ spot a recognizable landmark. There, out in the distance, riiiight at the front of the town... Lay a  _ lake _ . Its surface glimmered in the moonlight from above. Enough for her to make out a distinct shape to it.

**This was Redwood.** The locations of the various buildings might not have been the same - she couldn’t really  _ tell _ \- but the lake was definitely the one from outside their hotel, only she was seeing it from another angle.

She turned back to the woman. “ _ ...H-Hey. _ ” No response. “...H-Hey, uh,  _ who are you...? _ ” She approached, cautiously. “Y-You’re not Misanga again, are you...?”

She lightly pat the woman on the shoulder, but the woman didn’t even flinch.

“Hey...” Min Min began again, her voice quieting as she gave up. She was in front of the woman now - well, ahead to her left, but  _ functionally _ in front - and she could make out the woman’s face.

She was a modest woman. Not someone beautiful. Not someone hideous. Just an ordinary woman, probably around her late twenties or early thirties.

Min Min looked to the table the woman was sat at. There, in her hands, was a  _ knife. _ A small one with a wooden handle. It looked well-used, yet  _ very _ well cared for.

In the other hand... A  _ doll _ .

_ She was carving a doll from wood. _

...Min Min blinked. She turned to look around the room.  _ So  _ much was made from wood - the tables, the chairs, the coat stands and cabinets and shelves... Even the tableware and mantelpiece ornaments. By the door there was a small wooden  _ duck. _

It was all hand-made. She hadn’t noticed on first glance. A lot of it was  _ really _ well made, too. So much adorned with intricate designs and patterns. It must have all taken  _ forever _ .

The woman at the table leant forward suddenly and gave a quick puff, causing Min Min to snap her attention back to her in an instant. She had just blown the wood chip carvings from the table’s surface to the floor. Did this woman carve  _ all _ of these things herself? ...That’s pretty impressive.

Min Min watched the knife chip away at the doll, until a sudden miss-judgment caused the woman to pick her own finger. She flinched, waved her hand a bit, then put her finger to her lips. It didn’t seem to be a big mistake, and with a quick wipe of the knife to clear the smidgen of blood from it, she continued working.

“...So... Y-You can’t hear me, right?” Min Min pressed, a little confused. With no response, she waved her hand up and down in front of the woman’s face. “Hello...??”

...She sighed, turning to the empty room around her. Was she missing something...? What was she supposed to learn from all of this? Yeah, this was Redwood at some point in its past, but what did any of this have to do with what they were dealing with in the future...? Weren’t they just wasting more time?!

...The wind picked up again, though only slightly this time. Her surroundings didn’t change, but the woman was now gone from her table. The fire was also out now, but the sun rising from the windows seemed to compensate.

Min Min could hear something in a nearby room. Some sort of  _ shuffling. _ She approached the sound and came to an open door, where she cautiously peeked her head in.

The woman was hurrying through a dresser of clothes. Min Min got the impression, from the discarded shirts and dresses that littered the floor, that the woman was looking for something specific.

...And then she found it. The woman held up a long-sleeved shirt, examining it from left to right, as tears fell from her eyes.  _ What in the hell...? _

The woman hurriedly began to unbutton it, no doubt in a rush to put it on - she was topless save for some sort of old fashioned bra, after all - but before she could fully clothe herself Min Min had finally noticed the elephant in the room. The reason the woman had been searching so desperately for a  _ long sleeved _ shirt.

_ ...The woman had ARMS _ . They were pale and modest, so they’d slipped her notice for some time, unlike something the likes of Lola’s or Ribbon Girl’s would have.

They were  _ wooden _ . They looked to be carved from wood, like the arms of the doll she had watched her carving mere moments ago - though they could have been days, for all Min Min knew.

Min Min recalled the words of a long forgotten teacher she had had sometime about a decade ago. ‘ _ ARMS come from passion. From doing what you love. From devotion and enthusiasm. In all my years of teaching, no student has ever come to school the next day with homework for ARMS.‘ _

He had had a point.  _ To a degree _ , at least. Min Min’s ARMS came from her skills at ramen serving - something that meant a whole lot to her, given her family’s history. And Ribbon Girl had hers come from the first thing, in her own words, that had truly made herself feel  _ ‘pretty’ _ . ARMS  _ did _ have a tendency to appear from something you quite cared deeply about, even if it was never  _ guaranteed _ to be quite so on the nose.

...This woman. She had given her  _ all _ to woodworking. She’d spent countless hours chipping away at blocks of aspen, carving through basswood, smoothening oak... She’d been given the gift of ARMS - a  _ rare _ occurrence in this timeframe - and Min Min was here to witness her first moments with them.

She watched sadly as the woman wept by the mirror, desperately trying to pull her sleeves with her shaking wooden hands, hoping to cover as much as she possibly could.

A happy moment three hundred years later. Something people  _ dream  _ of waking up to. Yet... A horrific mutation for someone like her. Someone here and  _ now, _ when ARMS were seen as some sort of  _ sin. _

...The wind picked up again. The room was dark. The woman was gone.

Min Min turned from the doorway she had been stood at and peered back to the room she had been in moments before. The fire was back on.

The woman, sat again at the fireside table, lay still and empty with her hands on her lap, beneath the table’s surface and out of sight. On the table lay only her carving knife. As if she couldn’t bear to pick it up again.

...A loud  _ thudding _ came from the door behind Min Min, causing her to jump suddenly, frightened out of her skin. The woman at the table had been equally startled, jumping to her feet and skidding her chair behind her. She yelled something - something Min Min couldn’t understand, as the language was one she simply didn’t recognise

A burly voice came from behind the door, again in a dialect Min Min couldn’t translate. The woman, visibly panicked, picked up the knife from the table and hid it behind her back, before yelling something else to the man at the door.

Another voice came. This one a little more calm - though still  _ assertive. _ Min Min quietly peered through the window, wanting a look at the two strange men at the woman’s door. There were  _ fourteen  _ men. And three women, too.

The first man - a  _ big _ buy, bald but with a massive bushy beard - yelled back at her again, causing the woman in the cabin to squeal in fear.

Someone from the crowd of people at the back yelled at the men standing by the door. Some of the crowd were holding lit torches. It was a village  _ mob, _ through and through.

The big man thumped his fist on the door again, yelling impatiently. Min Min wanted to intervene - somehow,  _ some way _ \- but knew it’d be fruitless.

...The man kicked the door. The lower hinge broke.

The woman squealed, shaking her head with tears streaming down her cheeks.

...Another kick. And the door smacked flat to the cabin’s floor.

The second man - the one with the lighter voice, who had been stood by the burly man - was the first to enter. He spoke down to her in a tone that felt  _ commanding _ yet  _ cautious. _ Without any real evidence, Min Min felt as though this guy could be the town’s  _ mayor _ . He didn’t seem much like hired muscle, like the other guy.

The man approached, disgruntled at the woman’s head shaking. He made his insistence  _ again _ , but was similarly ignored. He then pressed forward, a step closer to her, and she began to swing at him.

The man stumbled back and the big guy stepped in. He snatched the woman’s wrist in one clean swoop. She dropped the carving knife.

He yanked her up by the wrist, dangling her, and snatched at her sleeve - tearing it down with a horrific  _ rip. _ His face turned sour. More sour than it had already been. And without hesitation, he reached up to the hand he had forced above him, gripped the woman’s index finger, and-

Min Min recoiled, turning away quickly as the sickening  _ crunch _ echoed in the room, followed immediately by a pained shriek from the woman. She felt tingly now, as if she’d just stepped on a pin.

...The big man chucked the woman’s finger to the major figure, who stumbled a bit to catch it. The man then clenched the woman by her hair and slammed her face into the floor - another thing Min Min hurridley faced away from.

Yelling came from the mob outside. They were getting  _ impatient. _

Min Min, her head turned from the suffering of the woman nearby, could feel her throat stinging again. She couldn’t take much more of this.

...The wind picked up - again, only lightly - and she was outside now. Ahead of her lay the view of 1600s Redwood, with the long cabins and the shimmering lake in the distance.

She turned in place, and a harsh orange glow met her eyes. Right before her - between herself and the woman’s cabin - was a roaring fire. Black smoke billowing into the air above.

To the left of the fire was the woman with the wooden ARMS. She was looking rough - bruised, beaten, and with her clothes torn apart. Particularly at the shoulders, where her entire sleeves had been harshly removed. No doubt in order to display her ‘ _ sin _ ’.

Two men - the big guy and another from the mob - were at either side of her, presumably to keep her in place. She didn’t seem like she was going to make a run for it, though. The smattering of blood coming down her forehead seemed to have made her a bit dazed. She probably didn’t have motor skills to run right now.

...Men were coming out of the cabin. They were taking various things from it - the shelves and chairs and cabinets and ornaments. One by one they were presenting them to the woman, to the men beside her, and then to the crowd... And then they were throwing them into the fire.

Min Min looked to her right. Scattered in a semicircle were the members of the mob that had been formed outside her door. They were engaging in small talk, like this was some sort of weekly weekend bonfire. Casual and social. Stopping only to cheer when something new was added to the fire.  _ Sick fucks. _

...The last of the items were brought to the fire. One was kept - some sort of wooden mask. Simple but, as with everything else, elegantly carved. The last to meet the fire was the wooden duck Min Min had noticed by the door. The man carrying it dusted his hands together after throwing it into the blaze.

The big man nodded his head up at the crowd. He said something in his thick accent and some men came forward from the crowd. They lit torches from the flame, then made their way to the cabin itself.

The woman weeped dramatically, almost like the wail of a banshee. One of the men at her side pushed her to the dirt. Then the other kicked her.

...The cabin roared into a bright and unstoppable blaze. The crowd cheered.

The big man spoke again. Sounds of agreement echoed among the chorus. And the two men grabbed the woman.

They held her at each of her ARMS, holding her out in the shape of a T. A man stepped forward. In his hands he held an axe.

Min Min didn’t watch. She did her best to plug her ears with her fingers, but the sickening  _ crunch _ that followed, as well as the blood-curdling scream, could not be drowned out. Nor could the second set that followed.

The woman’s ARMS were thrown onto the fire. Min Min knew, in much the same way that Ribbon Girls’ ARMS could not easily be torn, or that her own could not be cooked and eaten, that wooden ARMS would  _ not _ catch fire the way wood is known to. She assumed the townsfolk here did  _ not _ know that. And she hoped she would not be sticking around to find out what happened to her ARMS once they found out.

With some reluctance, Min Min turned back to face the woman, who now lay on the floor, chest heaving, with only splintered shoulders where her ARMS had been. The men seemed to talk for a moment. One nearby held the wooden mask in his hands - as if  _ waiting. _ And then the man with the axe stepped forward once more.

The woman was straightened, her eyes glazed and unfocused, and her jaw hanging loosely. 

The axe raised again. Min Min turned away. Somehow the crunch was  _ worse _ without the scream following it.

The wind picked up. Min Min felt dizzy.

...They were in the woods. The men cast her lifeless body aside. Right at the base of a wych elm. Her ARMS, undisturbed by the fire, were thrown atop her.

The men laughed. One of them urinated onto her. And then, without another glance, they made their way back toward the town.

...Min Min’s head pounded. She had seen things she had  _ never _ wanted to see. Things more revolting than she could  _ ever  _ have dreamt up. Would she ever recover from this? How could she ever close her eyes again and  _ not _ relive all of this horror shot-for-shot?

She looked toward the spot where the body had been discarded. She didn’t want to approach. It was bad enough that she’d been left with the mangled corpse of a freshly brutalized woman. She didn’t need to get any closer.

...A breeze passed by. It was like the winds of time she had been being moved by, but this was  _ softer. _ She could see clearly around her as time moved - she could watch as the tree branches swayed rapidly, their minute movements sped up into a blur.

But... Why? Nothing was  _ happening. _ She was deep in the forest with no one around, and  _ thankfully _ too far from the body to watch it decay.

...And then it happened. Slowly, over time - over  _ years _ , if the blurs of the swaying branches were anything to go by - the body began to  **rise.** It slowly ascended, twisting in place to straighten itself out, as it lifted into the air.

The wind was getting stronger.

Min Min watched in horror as the dead woman, whose ARMS were somehow reattached to the remains of her body again, was brought up to hang in the air about a foot from the ground - her ARMS limply outstretched, and her face  _ nailed _ with the wooden mask from before.

The wind was getting more and more violent. It was making her dizzy. Making her  _ wobbly. _

...The wind cut out. The branches slowed to a gentle sway, and the forest fell deathly silent once more.

Min Min stumbled, catching her footing as best she could.

...Why stop? Why stop now, with the decayed body hanging in the air from no discernable hoist?

And then she saw it. In a blinding flash, nine thin strings shot out from the woman’s head, shoulders, and wrists. They shot into the sky and showed no signs of stopping, climbing ever higher into the deep black of the night.

_ This _ was the other end of the strings binding Mechanica’s fate. It was the corpse they had seen in the forest’s faraday cage. The anciently old body hanging in the air. It had been hanging from  _ strings. _

The wind picked up again. Louder and more vicious than ever before. It was roaring around her like a storm, and every second it picked up higher and higher.

Time was passing again. The wych elm from behind the woman’s corpse began to spread out unnaturally, branching off into a horrific interwinding mess of wood and bark. It was encasing the corpse -  _ cocooning _ it. Getting thicker and thicker and thicker.

Min Min’s head spun faster and faster as the wind rung sharply in her ears.

She lost her footing. And she fell.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Min Min fell to the coach’s floor. She shuddered sharply, then sprung up to her knees, felt around quickly, and grabbed the nearby waist bucket.

Coyle woke up and stumbled back, tapping her hand to feel for the table behind her. She gripped it, then steadied herself to the seat opposite where Mechanica lay sleeping. She sat, trying to breathe in and out slowly, hoping to God she wasn’t about to have a stroke.

She looked to the floor, where Min Min was violently vomiting into the coach’s waist bucket. Nearby lay Ninjara - out cold and unmoving.

With a quick shudder, she looked up at Misango, whose eyes were still frozen in a trance. Then, a mere moment later, he blinked.

“...I feel we are better prepared.” He slowly turned to Ninjara, then to Min Min, then finally to Coyle. “...Would you agree?”

“That’s a funny way of saying we’re all horrifically  _ traumatized. _ ” Coyle groaned, still feeling intensely uneasy. “...But yeah, I  _ guess. _ I... I don’t know just yet, really.” She was beginning to realize she was  _ tired. _ They’d been so stressed - so  _ active _ throughout this whole damn day. Did she really have the energy to keep going? Did the  _ others? _

Min Min sobbed through pained retches over the waist bucket. She wanted to tell them she didn’t feel capable of going through with this plan to ‘sever the strings’. That she didn’t feel  _ mentally _ capable of bearing that task right now, after all she’d been through. But she couldn’t begin to speak right now. Her throat just wouldn’t allow it.

Coyle looked at the motionless Ninjara on the floor ahead of them, then to Mechanica. “...How long do we have? I-I...” She sighed. “I didn’t ask, I think. Not clearly at least. I-I’m pretty sure I didn’t get a solid answer. N-Nothing exact.”

“I don’t think Misanga knows  _ exactly  _ how long we have to break the connection. ” Misango informed, as nicely as he could. “...But I believe we have upwards of six hours at the least.”

Coyle nodded slowly, content enough with that answer. “I think we could spare to take a break... Just for a little bit.”

Misango seemed to agree. “...Misanga’s primary concern is that the longer Mechanica is tied to the marionette, the more the marionette will be able to use her.” He folded his ARMS. “Another decoy Mechanica like the one we saw this afternoon would be a possible obstacle if we delay much longer. The one from earlier today was primitive. Another could be more stable. More dangerous. It could even have access to her memories.”

“...” Coyle paused for a moment, staring into space. “ _ ...The Marionette... _ You asked better questions than I did...” She gave a long and drawn out sigh. “...We’ll aim to leave in about an hour and a half. It gives us a chance to have some water and  _ rest. _ If we’re ready to leave earlier than we will.”

“That sounds agreeable.” Misango nodded.

“ _ S-Ssuurreee...” _ Min Min groaned, her chest heaving and her chin wet.


	13. A Moment to Breathe

Ninjara had awoken a few moments later, and after an intentionally  _ brief  _ chat about their experiences, they went about taking their much break.

Water had never felt more  _ refreshing _ than it had to them now - smooth, cold, clean, and utterly  _ rejuvenating. _ Like a cleansing potion that washed away all their problems.  _ Water: the savior.  _ There was something about stress that always had a way of leaving you dehydrated, after all.

They sat in silence for a bit, enjoying the peace and allowing their minds to  _ switch off _ for a bit. With how exhausted they had all gotten it’s no wonder that they could tune out so easily. It was practically like a low level of sleep.

But, as enough silence always brings, their minds began to _talk_ again. They began to stress and worry about the upcoming ordeal. They began to gag and retch the recent memories of their little _mind trip_ _to the past_ back to the forefront of their minds. The fear in her eyes. The sickening _crunch_ of her ARMS... And then her _skull._

They opened their mouths, running from the thoughts. Ninjara had spent his last night before the trip watching an online documentary about  _ hot sauce. _ Just one of those things that’ll find their way into your suggestion box through some unknown means.

He brought this up to them. Told them what he had seen - how the peppers had been turned to a mush, and then a  _ paste, _ and then that paste was left in wooden barrels for many many days. The topic would have seemed trivial and, especially to Coyle,  _ immensely _ pointless... Were they not all desperate to stave off their encroaching nightmares.

Coyle chimed in with something about how the machines worked. She had visited a similar production factory once - though for  _ toothpaste, _ not sauce - and it had been a remarkably similar process, at least mechanically. The trip had been one of her first exposures to the mechanical world, and she still clearly remembered the foreman’s number one rule:  _ keep your fingers away from moving parts. _ Sound advice.

The topic went from production to the sauce itself, and then to various other types of sauces. It gave Min Min a time to shine - her restaurant was known for its ramen, yes, but they offered many other dishes too. She listed a few and, to her surprise, Coyle’s interest seemed  _ piqued. _ Half jokingly, Min Min suggested she stop by for a plate of  _ moo shu pork _ . To her surprise, Coyle considered the offer, and then  _ accepted  _ it, with the caveat being that she’d have to find the time to take lunch off first.

...Min Min wasn’t sure how to feel about Coyle. Though she supposed she had  _ never  _ been sure to begin with, admittedly. Sometimes she’d be reasonable, helpful, or even  _ friendly _ yet other times she’d do something with the specific intention of ruining your day just for the hell of it! ...She was a hard person to be around. A hard person to  _ know. _

Ribbon Girl had described her once ( _ in private, _ of course) as a ‘large personality’ - someone with goods and bads, just like  _ anyone _ else, except hers were much more one way or the other.  _ Great _ or  _ terrible _ , with no inbetween. Your best friend or your worst nightmare.  _ You never know what you’re going to get. _

Min Min had thought that it was arguably closer to **_okay_** or **_terrible_**, but she could see Ribbon Girl’s point. She’d admittedly been raised to think people were either _good_ or _bad_, and that all people were one of those two options - and _only_ one. Customer comes in, enjoys some ramen, then leaves on their way? _Good_ person. Customer comes in, shouts at workers, leaves the table a mess? _Bad_ person. There was no point in trying to make a bad person good and there was no point arguing with them to see things from _your_ point of view. _That’s just how the world works!_

But that line of thinking just didn’t apply to Coyle. And, admittedly, there were a  _ lot _ of people it didn’t apply to - it wasn’t the soundest advice, as much as Min Min loved her parents. But with Coyle especially, with her mood swings  _ so _ strong in either direction (...or, again, at least in  _ one _ direction), it was particularly noticeable.

...What mattered most, Min Min considered now, is what a person is like when it  _ really _ gets serious. Coyle could have blamed everyone but herself - Min Min, Ninjara, and Misango included -  _ but she didn’t _ . She had played this whole dilemma remarkably well. She had been the rock that grounded them. The one to take charge and allow them space to breathe. Hell, she’d even looked out for their mental health on multiple occasions, like telling her she didn’t have to accompany them into the woods if she didn’t feel up to it. That was good. That was  _ right. _

The thought of returning to Ribbon Girl, after  _ all this, _ and telling her that she now believes Coyle is ‘ _ confirmed good _ ’ was a pretty funny one. It was nice to know she could still smile, despite everything.

...Her smile fell. She thought back to the woman with the wooden ARMS again. She had fought off the topic  _ relentlessly _ until now, but this time it had come back to her head in a new light. The horrific things she saw and the horrific sounds she heard... That was no longer the focus.

“...Hey, uh-” She cleared her throat, a little nervous. “C-Could we talk a bit... About...”

The others fell silent, but it was clear they knew what she wanted to bring up. It  _ was _ the elephant in the room, after all.

Min Min stayed quiet, her eyes to the floor for a moment. Then, though still not really sure how to form her thoughts into words, she spoke. “...Th-The  _ woman. _ In the cabin...” She gulped. “I-I just... I-I guess I don’t  _ get _ it, y’know?

She could feel the words escaping her more and more, but Coyle’s forgiving expression helped her to push on.

“...The woman died because they thought ARMS were  _ wrong. _ I-I get that, that’s  _ known _ history. But...” She put a hand to her forehead. “...L-Like, let’s say I suddenly got killed by a bunch of people with  _ mustaches. _ A-And they killed me because I didn’t have one myself, a-and I couldn’t have had one myself even if I tried!”

She was distinctly aware that her comparison was needlessly  _ goofy, _ but it was hard to find a decent equivalent. Especially with how fried her mind was.

“I-I just...” She sighed. “ _ I don’t think I’d come back as a demon and kill all mustached people on the planet, _ y’know?” She shrugged. “L-Like I could understand wanting revenge on the specific people who killed you, sure, but why take it out on people  _ generations _ down the line? P-People who had no relation to the bad ones?”

This had been simmering in the back of her mind from the moment she left the ‘vision’. No matter how she tried to distract herself the question had remained throughout.  _ It just didn’t make sense. _ What untold cruelty did it take to justify something like that? No matter how horrific what you went through was,  _ why go to such an extreme? _

Ninjara looked lost, though there was the sense he had been considering the question himself too.

Coyle, on the other hand, seemed to be doing what Coyle did best:  _ searching for answers.  _ She considered, perhaps, that Mechanica might somehow have descended from the prior Redwood residents. That she might carry their same blood, in some way. Though, given all evidence to this point, there’d have to have been a  _ lot _ of ancestry spread around to end up with the number of victims the Marionette had wrought.

Perhaps, instead, there was some sort of  _ confusion _ on the Marionette’s part - maybe it saw every person with a particular  _ blood type _ as  _ related  _ to the locals of her time? The ARMS gene was known to  _ modify _ your blood type upon activating: A+ and B+ became A+S and B+S, with the  _ S _ chosen to represent the curve of an extended ARM. Could the Marionette tell the difference between active and inactive ARMS genes in the bloodstream...?

It was a good try from Coule - a  _ respectable _ try. But, as she should have learnt throughout her stay at Redwood, this was not a matter to approach  _ scientifically _ .

“The unholy entity residing in the body of the Marionette is  _ not _ the same spirit as the one that had inhabited the body in its living hours.” Misango informed, shocking everyone.

“W-Wait, it’s  _ not...? _ ” Coyle blinked.

He nodded slowly. “The woman’s spirit had left her body on death, as is the natural progression. The body lay dormant for several years following.” He straightened his back a bit. “But then a  _ new _ spirit found it. It housed itself within, bringing it to a form of  _ flesh _ , and greatly empowering its unholy abilities.” He gave a more confident nod - this was stuff  _ written in his blood. _ The Misangan chief’s most important knowledge. “Spirits hold little grasp on the living world as  _ spirits. _ They must inhabit  _ flesh _ in order to interact with it. That is why Misanga joined with you.  _ Through _ you.” He chose not to mention that there were exceptions to this. Some spirits could have influence  _ without _ a need for flesh.  _ Including Misanga. _ But that was irrelevant now.

Min Min held her head in her hands, still not sure what to make of any of this. “...S-So what’s stopping this thing from just finding a new body once we cut it out of this one...?” She could feel her heart pounding again.

“It is not easy to inhabit  _ flesh _ . Not when you are not  _ born into it _ . Misanga, as almighty they are, still requires a living person to  _ accept _ their influence. And they are unable to inhabit decayed flesh.”

She tried not to think about how he just implied that the Marionette was somehow  _ stronger _ than Misanga. Perhaps that was just poor phrasing? She desperately hoped so.

She didn’t know it at the time - _ very few did  _ \- but she was actually  _ woefully  _ incorrect. Misanga was vastly stronger than the force hiding in the woods.  _ Immensely _ so. And whether or not that’s a positive thing, well... That was up for debate.  _ Just not right now. _

“The woman’s trauma at the hands of the Redwood residents  _ lingered _ upon her spirit’s exit. A strong dark energy. With other  _ additional  _ factors in play, the body became a compatible vessel for the unholy entity that found it. I do not think it will be able to find another. And I assure you that, as Misanga is now aware of its existence, they will see to it that no further  _ possession _ comes to fruition.”

Coyle could see tears silently slipping down Min Min’s face again. She extended a hand and put it over hers, comfortingly. “ _ We can kill this thing. _ I’m sure of it. It’s us, healthy and  _ alive _ , versus a  _ heavily _ decomposed corpse that can’t even move.” She smiled gently - a reassuring smile Min Min had never seen before. “It’s in  _ our _ world. That’s an advantage to us.”

Min Min nodded slowly, feeling a touch more secure.

“And when we kick its ass back to  _ its _ world, there’ll be bigger fish to teach it who’s boss!” Ninjara added confidently, giving a pat to Misango’s back, believing Misanga will take care of it from there.

“...So.” Coyle cleared her throat. “It’s a bad  _ thing _ using a dead woman’s body. And that body has, I guess,  _ memories _ of when it was alive - and  _ that’s _ why it targets people without ARMS?”

Misango nodded. “It has taken elements of the woman’s life as its own. That is how it has determined its enemy.” This was, from a certain point of view, actually a  _ good _ thing - it could have otherwise targeted  _ indiscriminately _ , which would have likely brought upon a  _ vastly _ larger death toll.

Coyle looked toward Mechanica, and particularly the nine strings coming from her motionless body. “...The  _ copy _ of Mechanica didn’t have any of her memories...”

“Yes.” Misango answered. It hadn’t been a question, but he could tell from her tone where her concerns lied. “The Marionette is unable to move from its place. Flesh is  _ limiting _ . It attempted to spread its influence through more  _ creative _ means - assembling a puppet from discarded parts. Controlled from afar by the Marionette.” He turned to face Mechanica’s disgraced body himself. “...The longer she stays connected to the strings that bind her, the more of her will be given to the Marionette. Another copy could be produced. One sturdier. Less likely to fall apart. And it will slowly begin to draw from her memories.”

“ _ Not on my watch. _ ” Coyle muttered under her breath, before standing tall and stretching. “ _ That’s enough for now. _ It’s been informative, but we’re still not in good shape. We’ll continue to relax a bit and  _ recover, _ and then we’ll talk again about what exactly our  _ plan _ is.” She could tell Min Min was beginning to  _ melt _ from the stress again, and Ninjara was likely not too far behind, though he hid it better.

The room fell silent for a moment. Then Min Min sniffled. “...Anyone wanna know how they make  _ pocket knives? _ ”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...One hour and fifty minutes since  _ Misanga _ . The mood had lightened a fair bit! They were feeling better, at least to  _ some _ degree.

“I  _ really _ can’t tell if you’re making this up or not.” Ninjara smirked cautiously.

Coyle continued to  _ insist. _ “I don’t know how you haven’t noticed yet given it’s  _ your _ stage. You of  _ all _ people should know.”

Min Min laughed hard into her hand, having  _ way _ too much fun with this conversation.

“Okay, well, how many of them are there?” He raised.

“What?  _ I dunno. _ ” She shrugged, causing a snort from Min Min. “Ten? I think? Something like that.”

“And you just punch them...?”

“ _ YES, DUDE! _ ” Min Min laughed. “And then they poof away in a big cloud of smoke!”

“The  _ statues _ disapparate? Statues made of  _ stone? _ ”

“ _ Oh my God... _ ” Coyle groaned, putting her hand to her face. “You punch the frog and it disappears. It’s  _ really _ simple.”

“Yeah yeah yeah  _ yeah. _ ” Ninjara countered. “But it’s a  _ stone _ statue without any sort of mechanism or whatever.  ** _How_ ** _ does it disapparate? _ That’s the bit I don’t get.”

“ _ Hell if I knowwwwwwwww! _ ” This earned another snort from Min Min.

“I’m not buying it.” Ninjara shook. “I just don’t see how it’s possible.”

“But it’s TRUE!” Min Min groaned, a big smile on her face. “ _ It’s your own stage, dude!! You should know this stuff!! _ ”

“Alright, alright...” Ninjara smiled back. “ _ What happens when you hit all then statues? _ ”

“I don’t know, I’ve never bothered to try.” Coyle shrugged. Min Min broke into another bout of laughter.

A small chime played from by the beds at the far end of the coach.

“ _ OH! _ ” Min Min jumped, recognising it as her text notification tone - specifically the one that played when she’d received a text from Ribbon Girl. She had spent some early time in their break texting back and forth with her, keeping the conversation suitably  _ light _ to say the least.

She pulled her phone from its charging cable and unlocked it, happy to hear from the outside world again. She tapped her finger on the message app’s icon and-

Something caught her eye for a moment. She flicked her eyes up from the phone, then right back down... Then right back up again. Because she  _ had _ seen something.

She slowly approached the window at the back of the coach, squinting out of it into the darkness.

There was a  _ light. _

A  _ blue _ light.

She watched, confused as to what it could be, as it steadily got larger.

The light was splitting into two equal lights as it grew. The one on the right flickered a bit every so often at an uneven pace.

They grew larger still... Larger and larger...

...No, not _larger..._ **Closer.**

W-Was something approaching the coach...? What kind of-

Min Min yelped and fell backwards quickly, right as the window ahead of her smashed into pieces - glass falling down in a messy blanket. Another crash came, harshly denting the back of the coach. And then another.

Min Min twisted in place quickly and made way for the exit - something Coyle and Ninjara were already making their way to, followed closely by Misango, who had paused to pick up Mechanica and ensure her safety.

They ran out and slipped around the side. There, stood by the now  _ smoking _ remains of the back-end of the coach, stood a dripping wet  ** _Springtron_ ** _ . _

“What in the...” Coyle blinked, unsure how she could be seeing what she was seeing -  _ she had recovered his Black Box! _ That wasn’t just a hard drive, _ it was a crucial component _ . Springtron was  _ literally _ unable to function without it, so how-

“G G IVV E BA CK T HE GI RRL.” It stammered horrendously from its heavily water damaged voice speaker. “RE TTUR RN TH THE GG GIR RL N OW.”

Min Min’s heart sank again, so suddenly thrust back into the nightmare. “ _ I-It can’t be... _ ”

“Focus your eyes.” Misango said boldly and unfettered. “Do not forget that you now see _with_ _Misanga._”

Min Min looked to Ninjara beside her, then straightened her back in an effort to focus. She steadied her breath - as best she could, anyway - and nine white lines slowly flickered into existence atop the waterlogged robot. “...I-I see it.-!!”

“Me too.” Ninjara gulped. He got the feeling these were the same as Mechanica’s strings - that cutting  _ these _ ones would also not bear the desired effect.

“Oh you are  _ really _ not in my good books.” Coyle grunted at it, snarling her teeth. This was the first time she’d come face-to-face with a form of  _ it _ since the decaying Mechanica duplicate. And now she knew just what kind of a game it was playing.

“RR EET TURNN TH-” It began again.

“ ** _Not a chance in hell._ ** ” She spat.

“H-How is it even doing that?!” Ninjara quivered. “I-I mean, isn’t Springtron just a  _ machine?! _ ”

Coyle turned to him, as if to answer, but no answer came to her lips. She turned to Misango instead.

“...Mechanica is familiar with Springtron’s assembly. Is that correct?”

She gulped discreetly. She had meant to nod, but didn’t realize she actually hadn’t.  _ The Marionette was recovering Mechanica’s memories. _ Or beginning to, at least. And through some sick means it’s puppeteered Springtron out of the lake.  _ Real creative. _ And also _ fuck you. _

“Coyle...” Min Min squeaked sheepishly, her eyes worrying over the back of the coach. “I-It’s destroyed the engine...!” Was this it? Were they officially screwed out of survival? Even if they  _ did  _ get back from the forest in one piece -  _ ignoring that they had yet to even formulate a plan _ \- they’d still be stuck without a way home. What were they supposed to do,  _ walk the whole way back?! _

The metal puppet, flickering eyes locked on the four of them, smacked a hand into the coach’s back-end and tore out a large chunk of metal - some sort of pipe - causing the whole vehicle to shift slightly. The smoke billowing from it darkened.

Misango walked to the nearby curb and set Mechanica down gently. “I will deal with the machine.” He stated bluntly. “ _ You three must deal with The Marionette. _ ”

“B-But-” Ninjara quivered.  _ Without him?! _ How the hell were they supposed to fight  _ an evil spirit _ without their team’s  _ priest?! _

Min Min felt sick again. She hadn’t been ready for the break to end so abruptly. She hadn’t been ready to face this again. She hadn’t been ready to give up on relaxing and chatting and texting her most comforting companion.  _ Why?! _

“Springtron is  _ my _ creation.” Coyle retorted, gnarling slightly at Misango as her eyes remained locked on the rusting metal man. “ _ I _ will tear him apart.”

“ _ No. _ ” Misango refused. “This is not your place.  _ You are needed in the woods. _ ”

“No,  _ YOU are needed in the- _ ”

He stepped ahead of her, a step closer to Springtron. “ _ This is what Misanga intends. _ We will unite through faith and succeed through unity.  _ Have faith. _ ”

Coyle snarled, then turned in place to the others. “... _ We’re playing by Misanga’s playbook. _ ” She nodded. “The three of us need to deal with the source.  _ And we need to be fast. _ ”

“Wh-What about Mechanica?!” Ninjara motioned toward the sleeping child with the splintered ARMS. “We’re just gonna leave her here?!”

“ **R RE T TUR R N TTH E CHI I IL LD.** ” It echoed out again.

“ _ Better than bringing her with us. _ ” Coyle answered, uneasily. Taking one last look at the poor girl.

“ _ Let’s go. _ ” Min Min gulped, nodding vigorously as she could feel a bout of adrenaline coursing through her. She hoped desperately that it would keep pumping for however long this would take - it’d probably be the only way she’d get through it all.

“ _ Good luck, Misango. _ ” Coyle nodded respectfully, before running off toward the woods, followed closely by Min Min and Ninjara.

“Y YYO OOU TH TH I INK KY OU CA NN FI FIGH TME MME A AL LONE?” Springtron bellowed, extending its ARMS with a clunky whirl, water still dripping from them.

“I am  **never** alone.” Misango corrected, before a bright and shining white Misangan mask appeared on his face.


	14. Return to the Forest

This was it. Now or never. No turning back.

They sped past the lake. Through the scattered penumbra of the forest. And then deep into the thick darkness at the heart of the storm.  _ The very center of the nightmare. _

Every hurried step felt more like a stumble than a stable dash. The pitch black of the deep woods seemed to obscure their far-sighted vision. They could barely see even a few steps ahead of them now. It was a miracle they hadn’t slammed face-first into any trees yet.

Min Min’s heart pounded in her throat as she tripped and fumbled over the many fallen branches and thick tree roots that littered the path ahead. She had yet to fall face first into the mud - into the  _ peat _ no doubt rife with the discarded remains of past victims - but each drawn step felt like the inevitable finally coming to fruition.

“ _ S-Stop!! _ ” Ninjara pleaded after a moment, grinding to a halt and falling forward on himself, his hands on his knees as his chest huffed for air.

The women stopped too, mere steps from him, similarly gasping for breath. “ _ We can’t delay. _ ” Coyle insisted. “Sp-Springtron is  _ more _ than capable of killing Misango. He’s  _ weak _ and he’s  _ damaged _ but he’s sure as hell  _ resilient _ too.”

“We  _ need _ a plan!” Ninjara insisted, eyes wide, though they could barely even see each other at this point. “What the hell are we gonna do when we get there, huh?!”

“_We cut the strings on the damn demon body._” Coyle huffed.

“ _ HOW?! _ ” He grunted loudly, shaking. “How the  _ hell _ are we supposed to do that?!”

“ _ I. Don’t. Know. _ ” She strained through her teeth back at him. “Misango seems to think  _ Misanga _ will turn up to help us somehow, so right now I’m just banking on  _ that. _ ”

“ _ Fuck...! _ ” Ninja whined, hands on his head. This was  _ way _ too much stress for him. How did any of them know they weren’t about to walk  _ right _ to their deaths?!

Min Min spat out some of the bitter copper taste from her mouth. The kind that came from  _ way _ over exerting yourself physically - something to do with the roughness in your throat from the excessive inhaling, she thought. No doubt even worse for her now given the stomach acid damage her throat had withstood twice today at this point. She’d no doubt lose her voice for the better half of a week after all this was over.  _ If _ she survived at all.

“ _ We need. A plan. _ ” Ninjara insisted. “E-Even just a  _ loose _ one!”

Coyle dug her fingers through her hair, pulling at it. “ **FUCK.** _ Fine... _ ” She sighed harshly. “Somehow I don’t think this bitch is going to go down without putting up a  _ fight. _ A-And those fucking  _ corpses _ started  _ moving _ last time, so-”

“You two deal with the bodies.” Min Min panted. “K-Keep them under control a-and I’ll cut the strings...”

They looked at her -  _ or at least to the darkness in her general direction _ . It was enough of a surprise to hear her offer a plan, but why the hell was she putting  _ herself _ in the most dangerous spot? Wouldn’t that have naturally been Coyle’s burden to bear?

She mindlessly pressed her fingertips against her left wrist. Her ARM had gone numb. Was the adrenaline too much for her body? Was this the first sign she was about to pass out?

“A-Are you  _ sure, _ Min Min?” Coyle asked, ready to swap places with her at even the slightest hesitation on Min Min’s part.

“Th-That’s the plan.” She nodded back, though unseen, secure in her role. But she wasn’t really sure  _ why _ she had taken that role for herself. Was she just eager to spit a plan out to get them back on track as soon as possible? To get this over with as quickly as they could? Or did she somehow believe that the Marionette itself would be defenseless outside of the puppetted bodies? That having the other two defend her through the ordeal would somehow make this a walk in the park for her? Was she being  _ selfish? _

Coyle swallowed, straightening her back to try and force some confidence again.  _ Time was ticking. _ “That works for me, then. All good, Ninjara?”

He too felt an urge to take Min Min’s place, believing it would be the most dangerous of roles to take. What if they made it out of here  _ without _ Min Min? What if they lost her because he couldn’t defend her as promised? ...He did his best to bury the thought. It’d be a thought he could revisit once this was all over, whatever the outcome wound up as. Would he feel regret? Guilt?  _ Relief? _

Coyle didn’t wait for an answer, and soon enough they were all back into their hurried stumble through the forest. Deeper and deeper. To where the organic floor  _ clung _ to their feet like glue with every step.

A thought lingered in the back of each of their heads. One that went unvoiced, but was certainly a valid concern:  _ were they even going the right way...? _ The forest was infinitely large and twisting, and they had been guided by Misango the last time they had made the journey. And they had had more light to work with, too!

..But Misango hadn’t really been the one leading them. They had all known that to some degree. It was  _ Misanga _ who had been guiding them to the  _ tumour _ at the forest’s center. And Misanga had merely led them  _ through _ Misango. He was a vessel through which they could feel Misanga’s presence. Was that not what he had said?

But they were  _ all _ vessels now. At least until the night would end. And sure enough, after an eternity of blind sprinting through the unknown...

**They had arrived.** Here, in the deep of the forest’s center, lay the wretched mass of overgrown wych elm - dark and foreboding like a jagged mess of splinters and matchwood. The branches far above seemed almost  _ afraid _ of it, a bizarre clearing making way for the moonlight above, bathing everything in a haunting blue tone. Perhaps they’d have even preferred it left in darkness, honestly.

They stopped for a moment, watching the mass in a paralyzing chill. “...Whatever happens in there...” Coyle gulped, feeling the end of days approaching. “...You’ve been great opponents. I wasn’t sure I would  _ fit _ at the League, but you each held your own more than  _ admirably _ .”

Min Min stared at Coyle’s partially lit face with a deep sorrow. She could feel far more to Coyle’s words than the woman was letting on. A  _ story. _ A  _ history.  _ A sense of the woman it had been said she once had been before. A woman often scared and alone and  _ unsure _ . A woman much more alike herself, or even alike her  _ mother.  _ The crow’s feet by her eyes and the wrinkles by her lips seemed less like  _ battle scars _ now, like she supposed Coyle had hoped they would be seen. Now they just seemed like  _ age _ . A forbidden truth. _ A confession that Coyle was well past her prime.  _ Something she must have been running from for so very, very long.

“...And...” Coyle’s dry purple lip quivered somewhat. “...I guess you’ve each been good  _ friends, _ too.”

...They were going to die. That’s what Coyle now believed. And if she believed it, well, what left was there to stop Min Min and Ninjara from believing it too?

...They each felt like they should say something. Like they should give a similar goodbye or ‘ _ thanks for the good times! _ ’. But as her large brass shoulders raised and her back straightened again, it was clear there’d be no time for that.

Coyle continued, closely followed by Min Min and Ninjara. They came to the opening at the far-end of the structure once more and peered into its graping abyss.

With careful steps, they began into it. In their haste from the coach they had neglected to bring their flashlights once more.  _ They’d be traversing it in the dark. _

The moonlight from outside seemed to extend only to the first short distance of the tunnel. It lit the old wood and filth with a dim pale blue, and from that alone they could at least tell there were yet no bodies ready to snatch them. No sign of the  _ piles _ of the dead deeper within.  _ Not yet. _

Their first few steps were slow one. Was  _ that  _ the game they’d be playing? Were they going to  _ creep _ through as silently as they could, hoping to somehow go unseen? Or would they all soon suddenly break into a sprint after some unplanned cue, then dash to the far-end of the structure as quickly as they could to finish this before the Marionette had a chance to react? Their plan was but a sentence. Just a vague idea of the roles they would play. _ It wasn’t enough. _

They carefully trudged their way into the darkness just barely clinging to the moonlight. It’d be unknown from this point forward - each step a guess in the dark. Would they miraculously find clear ground just as they had avoided the trees on their run over? Or would their shoes crack a long forgotten bone and wake the horde? It was barely-

...They froze. Each of them. In an  _ instant. _

_ ...A voice was coming from the entrance of the structure. _ A  _ soft _ voice. A  _ sweet _ voice.

They turned slowly, their eyes running from the long drawn-out shadow on the wretched floor to the short silhouette stood with her back to the moonlight.

“ _ ...Sagittarius. Madrid. Buzzcut. Sandile. Honey Smacks. Philippine peso. Aquarius. Togepi. _ ”

Min Min’s heart hit her throat.  _ Mechanica. _ Back again, alive and well. All over again.

“ _ That’s enough. _ ” Coyle grunted, a sharp crease between her eyes as she scowled at the figure before them.

“Are you sure?~” Mechanica sang sweetly. “I can keep going, if you would like!~” She gave a big bright smile. “It’s _soooo_ _niceeee_ to be awake again. I guess you don’t need to go down there after all, huh?”

“As if we’re gonna fall for this shit  _ again! _ ” Ninjara grunted angrily. Min Min’s head felt heavy.

...Mechanica frowned. “ _ Did I do something wrong? _ I’m sorry I wondered off last night. And I’m sorry it got you into this whole mess...  _ But now we can all be a big family again! _ ” She smiled again, but this time it curved into a freakish  _ grin. _ “... _ That’s what you want, isn’t it? You want us all to be one big happy family?  _ I know that’s what  _ you _ want...  _ Romana. _ ”

A sharp shiver shot down Coyle’s spine. It had been clear from the Studebaker Number that  _ this  _ copy had access to Mechanica’s memories now. But she hadn’t even been aware that Mechanica had learnt her name. Probably from some old document somewhere... But it felt  _ wrong _ to hear it from Mechanica. She knew full well that Mechanica would  _ never _ choose to address her by it.

Coyle stepped forward. “If you think my love for Mechanica isn’t outweighed by  _ disgust _ for you then you’ve made one  _ hell _ of a mistake.” Her teeth snarled sharply in her blared jaw. “I will not  _ hesitate _ to rip you limb from limb and get that  _ shitty _ excuse for a disguise off your stolen face.” She looked above the amalgamation of body parts and saw the white strings blink into view. “...I suggest you take a moment to  _ enjoy _ the last few moments of your prolonged life rather than try and get in our way.”

‘Mechanica’ frowned at her. It didn’t  _ really _ think it could convince them again the same way it had earlier that day, but it  _ had _ hoped it would unnerve them more. But all groups have a  _ weak link... _

Her eyes flicked to Min Min and a grin appeared once again on her face. “You believe me, right?~”

Min Min, frozen in place save for the unending shiver coursing through her body from head to toe, gulped nervously. She  _ didn’t _ believe her...  _ Of course _ she didn’t. But the illusions was  _ so good. _ The body looked clean and kind and  _ young. _ Her voice was smooth and warm and  _ familiar. _ Where were the signs for her to hold to? Where were the accidental confessions of the imitation's true form? Where the hell were the  _ strings?? _

‘Mechanica’ grinned brightly. “Heyyyy...  _ I’ve got a present for you guys!~ _ ” She giggled warmly.  _ Mechanica’s giggle. _ “In case you think I’m not already on my way back here... With your  _ metal man _ and  _ the girl... _ ”

In one swift motion it chucked a large object from behind her into the elm’s opening where they stood. It rolled along the floor, turning slightly in its path, before coming to standstill just ahead of Min Min’s feet.

She felt her whole body sear in pain for a quick sudden flash and she screamed, immediately backing up away from it - pressing her back into the sharp thorns of the cave’s wooden walls.

There, ahead of them, lay the severed head of their dear friend. _It had killed_ _Misango._ It had _butchered_ him, then thrown his lifeless head to their feet like it was _nothing._

“ _ Get a hold of yourself! _ ” Ninjara urged to Min Min, snapping out of his own sudden shock and hurrying to her side. Coyle had made a motion to turn too, but at Ninjara’s motion she instead chose to stay locked with her eyes on the imposter before them.

Min Min shook her head rapidly, staring into the dead green eyes looking up at her from the floor. Blood was seeping out of his torn neck like a deep purple wine, shining in the traces of moonlight from outside.

“ **FOCUS, MIN MIN!** ” Ninjara grunted, grabbing her by the shoulder.

“ _ N-N-N-N-N- _ ” She stammered, unable to take her eyes from it.

_ “How is his head here if Springtron is still making his way back?!”  _ He insisted. _ “That’s NOT Misango! See it for what it  _ ** _really_ ** _ is! You have to  _ ** _focus!_ ** _ ” _

Despite the deep dread coursing through every vein in her body, she did her best to hang onto the pleas of her friend. She tried to steady her breathing, remember that as advice usually given to panicking people, and forced her eyes shut despite everything telling them to keep staring.

She gave a strong groan, closing her hands into tight fists.  _ Not Misango. Not Misango. Not Misango. _

She opened them suddenly and whinced from the bright white light ahead of her.  _ She could see the strings tied to ‘Mechanica’. _ And the illusion of her close friend had left - youthful skin and warm voice replaced with rotten flesh and coarse laughter once more.

She looked down, with some hesitance, at the head by her feet. It no longer resembled Misango, but was instead the pale head of a middle aged man that had begun decaying some  _ years _ ago. The blood at its neck was old and dried and the lifeless green eyes she had been unable to look away from now matched closer to a deep  _ black. _

“ _ Well well well! _ ” ‘Mechanica’ grinned brightly, her teeth a rotten jagged mess of mix-matched parts. “You’re not all as  _ stupid _ as I had thought!” She took a step closer, a slight limp in her movements as she did. “ _ Except that you came back here at all. That was  _ ** _really_ ** _ not a smart idea! _ ”

“ _ I’ll deal with this fucker. _ ” Coyle commanded as she glared at it. “You two  _ finish this thing. _ ”

“You really think you can hit me?” It smiled, its voice now a far cry from Mechanica’s. “Are you  _ sure _ you have it in you to-”

Coyle smashed a fist against its cheek, sending the body some distance to the floor. It got up again after a few seconds, its jaw now dislodged heavily to the right. “Ish goning to takhe-” It pressed a palm to its jaw and snapped it back into place. “-more than that to stop  _ me. _ ”

Min Min and Ninjara hurried deeper into the structure, now going at a quick pace - more alike the latter plan Min Min had considered in her head as they arrived.  _ Get in, take care of it, get out. _ And that’d be it,  _ right? _

It was hard to judge just where the hell they  _ were _ in the tunnel. How much deeper  _ was _ it? They could barely see a thing, save for the light glow from the entrance.

...There were definitely bodies beneath them now. Each step they took  _ squished _ like an uncooked steak as they progressed deeper, and the sound of movement all around them began to get louder and louder.

...Ninjara tripped. His ankle had suddenly been grasped by an unseen hand, yanking him down to the floor. “ _ FUCK! _ ” He yelped, kicking his foot in an attempt to free himself.

“... _ N-Ninjara!! _ ” Min Min gasped, stopping for a moment to look in his direction. She  _ had _ to help, b-but  _ how?! _

Ninjara continued to kick at it, using his free leg to try and loosen the grip on the other. “ _ Get! Off! Me! _ ” He grunted. Then as if a lightbulb went off in his head, he made an attempt to poof away from it.

He fell flat on his back about a foot away, but as he stumbled back to his feet he felt another hand grasp at his shoe. He poofed away from that one too, but they kept grabbing. And grabbing.  _ And grabbing. _

He was beginning to lose his breath - his gasp on the ninja techniques passed down to him beginning to falter. He found himself unable to poof away from the now  _ three _ hands holding him down.

He grit his teeth and attempted to force another lightbulb into his head. If he couldn’t poof away, what  _ could _ he do? Six years of ninja training was  _ not _ for nothing. He could still  _ leap _ like a ninja or  _ hide _ like a ninja or  _ run _ like a ninja...

Come on...  _ Come on... _ After all he had learnt, there had to be  _ something _ that would help him now! Something to help him  _ cut _ himself out of-

He inhaled sharply, the lightbulb finally coming. He put his hand up high and grasped for what he could never have known would be there.

_ A shining flicker of white light formed in his palm. _ He swung it down ahead of him without a second thought - spreading out a bright white light as one of the many sharp ends sliced through one of the splintered arms holding him down.

Min Min watched in awe as Ninjara, now illuminated in the dark cave by a bright white light, cut himself free from his restraints.

He pushed back to his feet and held high above him the gift Misanga had bestowed.  _ A shining white ninja star. _

“ _ Min Min,  _ ** _GO!_ ** ” He beckoned, before sharply throwing the star forward. It flew past her and collided with the nearby cave wall, lodging itself in the wood.

She watched as he produced another from above him, which he used to swing at another puppeteered corpse, before lodging that one too into the cave wall.  _ He was lighting her path. _

With a deep breath she began to dash forward again into the tunnel, moving as quickly as she could while avoiding the needy hands reaching up around her.

Ninjara made every effort he could to follow her, between slicing at the assailants and lighting up the way ahead. In the distance Coyle began to approach too, doing her best to climb over the fallen bodies -  _ stomping her spiked boots into them  _ as she moved.

Min Min stumbled forward and met her eyes to nine shining white strings shooting out ahead of her. “ _ I-I see it!! _ ” She gasped harshly.

Ninjara swung a star forward, which then collided with the wall just left of the Marionette’s resting place.  _ There it was.  _ Bathed in the white light from the star hung the rotted corpse of a woman some _ four hundred years old _ . Its dress torn and filthy. Its skin a pale feast for the  _ maggots. _

She could see it more clearly now than ever. A wooden mask  _ nailed _ to its skull. Dark greased hair frayed in patches around the heavy gash the axe had left. Its ARMS worn and weathered over the years, sleaded back at the shoulders with an unearthly thick black  _ goop. _ A dark horror of rotting wood.

“ _ Let’s kill this fucking thing! _ ” Coyle grunted, as Ninjara produced another white star from the thin air above him.

He furrowed his brow, and then, with a deep breath, he launched the star toward the figure ahead of them.

A sudden blast of hot air ran over each of them as the star collided with one of the strings,  _ slicing it apart _ . It fizzled into nothingness, just as Misanga had shown them, but it didn’t return.  _ It would  _ ** _not_ ** _ return. _

“ _ A-Again! _ ” Coyle grinned at the surprise success.  _ Only eight left! _

Min Min smiled hopefully as she watched Ninjara form another... But it fell to the floor before he could throw it. A mass of hands had grabbed him from behind - more than had  _ ever _ reached for him before. They clung to his every limb, pinning him down helplessly.

Coyle’s eyes widened, and without a word she reached for the star. More hands shot out from around them to restrain her, but she fought against them, her fingers brushing up against the star’s surface-

...’Mechanica’ dug its nails into Coyle’s face, gripping her from behind with a hand tightly weaved into her hair and her foot between her neck and her large brass shoulder. “ _ Didn’t I tell you I wasn’t easy to kill?! _ ” She grinned brightly, forcing Coyle to the floor.

Min Min watched in horror, her legs shaking, as her two friends fell victim right before her. It took everything in her power to turn her attention back to the Marionette -  _ back to the eight strings that still remained. _

Ninjara’s star had fallen a short distance ahead of him, but it was now  _ buried _ beneath wriggling corpses. The other nearest would be...  _ The one that had cut the first string. _

Coyle burst from the body pile, her hands wrapped tightly around ‘Mechanica’’s neck. She slammed her back into the wall, but more bodies approached to grab at her.

“ _ C-Coyle! _ ” Min Min screamed, seeing the struggle.

“ _ You think I love you?! _ ” ‘Mechanica’ glared at Coyle from behind its messy tattered hair. “ _ You think  _ ** _anything_ ** _ we’ve shared together has ever meant  _ ** _anything_ ** _ ? _ ”

Its attempts to once again play to the side of Coyle that cared for Mechancia were completely  _ pointless _ now, given she could see it for what it really was. For what a  _ pathetic _ attempt at a copy it was without its additional layer of illusion.

“ _ Every time you’d turn your back I’d roll my eyes! Every time you’d leave the room I’d thank the heavens! _ ”

...Was it  _ desperate? _ What other need would there be to try playing psychologically again when it knows it won’t work? Is it getting  _ scared? _ O-Or is it just  _ mocking _ us?!

“ _ I don’t think of you as even a  _ ** _friend_ ** _ ! How could I  _ ** _ever_ ** _ think of you as anything  _ ** _more_ ** _ than that?!”  _ It spat.

Coyle’s grip on its neck tightened, her face scrunching into a sharp rage.

“ _ You are  _ ** _NOT_ ** _ my mother! _ ” ‘Mechanica’ grinned with pure malice. “ _ You will  _ ** _NEVER _ ** _ be my mother! _ ”

“AND  _ YOU _ -” Coyle shouted back at it, tiny white flickers of light appearing around her head. “ARE  _ NOT- _ ” A white frame began to slowly brighten into place. “ ** _MY DAUGHTER!_ ** ”

A shining white  _ skull _ formed over Coyle’s own, thick and  _ bulky  _ like an indestructible helmet. And then four glistening white  _ ARMS _ shot out from atop its dome.

_ It was a Hedlok. _

One of the four ARMS pinned to ‘Mechanica’’s head and forced her back, while the other three grabbed and swung at the surrounding corpses still reaching for her.

Min Min stared at it in awe, until it turned to her suddenly and Coyle’s voice beckoned out from behind the bright white eyes.  _ “KILL THAT FUCKING THING!! _ ”

She inhaled sharply, then turned to the body hanging ahead. She leapt forward for it, only to be yanked right back down by a hand around her ankle. She kicked at it rapidly, then stumbled forward a bit as she broke free - only to be again restrained once more by another corpse.

It was like swimming through  _ brick. _ Every push she made to get forward came at the expense of a  _ lot _ of her remaining energy, yet each stumble brought her less and less distance each time.

She had  _ ARMS _ . She could extend them and reach for the star...  _ Only she was still too far away. _ And to extend them now was to seal her fate - she would no doubt be unable to retract her ARM, snagged by the awaiting puppets protecting their master.

...Coyle was becoming overrun. Ninjara, beneath the doggy pile of rotten flesh, was losing the energy to push them away.

...And now Min Min too was becoming overwhelmed. They were grabbing her all over, tearing at her clothes and digging their filthy nails into her skin. Their hands were choking her and scratching at her face. No matter how she tried to push forward... She could not.

She was going to die.

Ninjara. And Coyle. And Misango. And Mechanica. They were  _ all _ going to die.

They had lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next week for the thrilling conclusion to the story!! 😱
> 
> In the meantime... Want to talk more about ARMS fanon and headcanons, share and review fan art and fan fiction, and have fun with ARMS world building? Check out my new Discord server for ARMS fan works!  
https://discord.gg/UCS9qf


	15. Right When It Really Counted

Min Min had never spent much time thinking about  _ death _ before. It was a topic she didn’t really like to think about -  _ few people do _ . And she had thankfully not experienced much death in her personal life up to this point. No friends. No close family members. She had never  _ once _ had to attend a funeral.

Her feelings toward death, she supposed, could be summed up as “ _ a scary distant thing _ ”. It would happen one day, and that  _ really _ scared her, but it was also hopefully quite some time away still. So she didn’t really  _ need _ to concern herself with it for the time being.

_ Was there life after death? _ She couldn’t see much a  _ logical _ reason to say yes, but she hoped there’d be  _ something _ at least.  _ Would you turn into some sort of ghost and get to float around places you used to live? _ ...That was a pretty secure  _ no _ , in her opinion.  _ What about reincarnation? _

There were very few things she’d actually  _ decided _ a stance on. Maybe she had some vague ideas at best, but for the most part it was one big  _ -shrug-. _

...But now, about to be torn apart by puppetted corpses, she was about to get a whole lot of answers  _ very _ quickly. No more delays. No more “ _ I’ll think about it later _ ”s. It was all about to happen  _ now. _

...So here was question number one:  _ when you’re about to die, does your life REALLY flash before your eyes? _ It was another that Min Min had really just shrugged on, but if she  _ had _ to consider it then she’d probably have said it seemed...  _ Unlikely. _ I mean, how would  _ we _ know that’s a thing that happens? You only find that out right before you kick the bucket, right? Who used their last words to say “ _ by the way, turns out that does happen! _ ”?

...If it  _ did, _ though. If she  _ had _ to find a logical reason for something like that to happen...

Well, it would only make sense that it’s your brain trying to find something to help you at the last second, right? A last-second search for a get-out-of-death-free card? Wouldn’t be much help if you were dying from leukemia, sure, but it’d help if you were about to be attacked by a bear and then remembered your school teacher advising that you play dead in such a situation. That’d make  _ sense _ , right? As some sort of  _ mechanism _ to help you out?

...She was wrong. There was nothing helpful about this.

Memories filled her head like some sort of bizarre whole-life slideshow, one after the other, in rapid succession. She remembered her first day at school. Then her last day of summer camp. And then her first kiss. And her first ARMS match.

Then she remembered watching  _ Terminator: Salvation _ in cinemas back in 2009. And then completing  _ Super Mario Galaxy 2 _ in 2013 - a few years  _ after _ it had released, yes, but she had gotten all 242 stars!

She remembered one of her early birthday parties - one where she had a  _ Thomas the Tank Engine _ cake. And a new years eve party sometime much later, with the exact date unsure. 

She could remember drinking a bottle of strawberry flavoured juice on a hot summer day some time in her teen years, then a funny cat video she saw online where the cat tried to jump across a gap but barely made any distance at all.

What was the point of  _ this? _ There was nothing  _ helpful _ here. Hell, it wasn’t even a slideshow of all the good times she’d had over the years - she could remember getting her first period, for Christ’s sake. Nothing  _ helpful _ . Nothing particularly  _ fun _ or even  _ memorable. _ Hell, the memories weren’t even coming in any particular order.  _ What was the  _ ** _point?_ **

_ ...She remembered Ribbon Girl. _ Not a particularly significant moment with her, though. Just a drive to get some lunch some time probably in the last year. It wasn’t anything special, but it was still  _ nice... _ The thought made her sad. She wouldn’t get to do that again...

...She remembered Master Mummy. Some of her first few days at the ARMS League. He had taken her under his wing and shown her the ropes of how all the backstage stuff worked and all that. Which changing room to use, how to turn on the machines at the little work out area they had... For someone everyone thinks is so scary, he was so nice...

...She remembered Kid Cobra, and how he tried eating one of those ‘Unreal Heat’ chili peppers for one of his subscriber goals. How his eyes watered and his fist slammed against the table in agony. Never a dull moment...

.........

......

...

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Min Min knocked on the big metal door, causing an echoey clanging noise as she did. “ _ Open up! It’s da police! _ ” She smiled when the door finally did open a couple seconds later.

“Ah!” She smiled up at her brightly. “ _ Hey!  _ I’m  _ juuuust _ about done with it...”

She followed her inside and shut the door behind her. Mechanica’s workshop really was something to behold - it was like a  _ museum _ with all the crazy inventions littering the place. Like something you’d see in a commercial for  _ Gadget Camp! _ or something.

Mechanica led her to a counter near the back, squeezing between some half-finished machinery to get to it. “The ignition tube had melted a bit. I put a new one in but also tried to heat-proof it a little better, so hopefully it won’t happen again?” She took a shoebox from the counter’s surface and handed it to Min Min with a smile.

Min Min popped the lid, only to find  _ exactly _ what she had expected to:  _ her left-handed Dragon ARM! _

...That is to say, her dragon-head shaped long-distance laser  _ glove  _ ‘ARM’. Perhaps, in hindsight, she should have given it a clearer name to better differentiate it from her  _ actual _ dragon ARM...  _ But oh well. _

She had noticed the ARM  _ spluttering _ cinders like it never used to do. A bit concerning when it’s meant to be a reliable tool for quick use in a pinch.  _ Can’t have it exploding on her hand mid-match or anything! _ But luckily she had pretty much  _ just _ met Mechanica when all of this started.  _ Kid genius who can fix anything?  _ Now  _ that _ was some luck! “Looks good to me! I’ll be nice and  _ not _ try it out in your warehouse.”

“Oh, well,  _ you can try it out back! _ ” She hurried to the big garage door at the other end of her warehouse and slapped the big red button beside it. “It’s where I test most of my stuff. Less damage if something goes  _ boom! _ ” The door whirred to life and began to rise, giving way to the dusty scrapyard next door.

Min Min stepped out, followed closely behind Mechanica, and slipped on the Dragon.  _ Fit like a glove... _ Which made sense, given that’s what it  _ was. _

“Sorry if it’s a touch heavier than you’re used to! The extra thermal padding might weigh it down more... Let me know if that’s a problem!!” Mechanica stepped on a nearby pressure plate, causing a target at the other end of the yard to swing upright.

“Nah, feels good to me!” She smiled back, striking her hand outright. She flexed her fingers and a sharp fiery bolt shot from the Dragon’s mouth.  _ Bullseye. _

Mechanica clapped excitedly. “Nice shot!! I didn’t have nearly as much luck when testing it...  _ I almost shot a bird out of the sky. _ Eek!”

Min Min chuckled, withdrawing the ARM from her hand. “Well it looks to me like you did a great job! ... _ What do I owe you? _ ”

Mechanica pouted. “ _ Like I said, _ you don’t have to pay me!! It was well worth it just to get to tinker inside it a bit. Plus I could test it out!”

She rolled her eyes. “ _ Well I’m gonna treat you to a free lunch anyway  _ ** _eventually_ ** _ ,  _ so don’t think you’re gonna get away with being unpaid!”

Mechanica smiled brightly. The kinda smile Min Min was really starting to enjoy seeing. “Well if you want me to put the same thermal protection on the other one let me know!! ...Though I think that’ll be the only one really in any danger of heat damage, really. I think it gets hotter than the other because it’s your stronger ARM.”

Her left ARM  _ was _ considerably stronger than the right once it scaled-up into  _ dragonhood _ , admittedly. “What about the Ice Dragons? Any sorta ice damage I gotta worry about with those?”

“I don’t  _ think _ so, but I’m always happy to take a look!” She smiled brightly again, her teeth shining in the warm summer sun, and struck out her thumb in a big thumbs-up.

“You’re a good kid.” Min Min smiled back at her softly. “ _ Smart, _ too.”

The two walked into her warehouse again. Mechanica went for the door-close button but decided against it after a brief pause -  _ it was nice to get a bit of fresh air in. _ And it was a beautiful day, too!

Min Min made her way to the door, not wanting to impose on Mechanica by staying any longer than expected - they  _ really _ didn’t know each other that well yet, after all. “You’ve been a real help, Mech!” She grinned back at her, admirably. “The League was telling me it’d take up to  _ three weeks _ to get it back if I had to send it to  _ them _ for repairs.” Not a great hiatus for her most iconic of ARMS.

“That’d be no good at all! Glad I could help you out.” She nodded back. Her attention then seemed to be caught on a small nearby box. “... _ O-Oh! _ ” She dashed over to it and picked it up. “S-Sorry, it  _ totally _ slipped my mind that these came in this morning...  _ They’re better screws for the Dragon!  _ Some near the ignitor had melted a bit but I didn’t have the spare parts, so I placed an order... Would you mind if I put them in real quick? It’d only take a minute!”

Min Min handed the shoebox back to her. “ _ I thought you said all your replacement parts were things you already had handy! _ If you’re making special orders for me then I  _ definitely _ gotta pay you somehow...”

Mechanica shook her head rapidly as she grabbed her nearby screwdriver. “I-I needed some of them spare anyways, so it’s  _ really _ no bother!!”

She rolled her eyes, picking up a nearby device to look over to help pass the time. Some sort of  _ advanced electric whisk _ , from the looks of it “You’re  _ crazy _ good at all this stuff, y’know. You could  _ totally _ get a job at the ARMS Lab.”

“...You think?” She smiled, blushing a little, after a small nervous laugh. “That’d be pretty cool, but I dunno if they’d be  _ that _ quick to take me... I’m not as good as it might look.” She motioned to the junk littering the room. “Most of the stuff you see here doesn’t even really  _ work _ , a-and I’m not really that  _ organized _ ...”

“ _ Still. _ ” This was only her  _ third _ trip to Mechanica’s warehouse, and only about the fourth or fifth time meeting her in general. It was also the first time she was visiting her  _ without _ Ribbon Girl by her side, who had other arrangements to attend to. She hadn’t really gotten to  _ know _ Mechanica yet, in truth, but she could easily tell the kid had a serious talent.  _ And _ the gusto to keep at it through thick and thin. It was incredibly admirable.

Mechanica blushed a little again, then handed her the Dragon. “ _ Good as new! _ ”

She took it, giving it a quick look over before putting it into the shoebox. There was something about the way the shiny new screws caught the light that just  _ really _ pleased her. “...What’s your secret?”

“Hm?” Mechanica lent against the counter she’d just been working at, her silhouette  _ shining _ in the warm sunlight from the open garage door.

“ _ All this! _ ” She motioned around the room at all the various bits and bobs, half-finished machines, and technical marvels. “ _ How’d you do it?! _ ”

Mechanica shrugged and began to shake her head. “Like I said, half of it doesn’t even work...”

“ _ Yeah, but you still gave it a go, right? _ ” She smiled a real  _ genuine _ smile. “I mean, hell,  _ I can barely get myself out of bed in the morning! _ ...But you’re here, y’know... Building all this stuff, keeping up with your school work, training to be an ARMS fighter-” She extended an ARM out dramatically. “ _ You’re literally joining the League next week! _ You don’t think that’s incredible?”

“W-Well  _ yeah,  _ but!” She shrugged again, though a smaller one this time. “Plenty of people join the League-”

“ _ Not at your age! _ ” Min Min scoffed. “ _ And _ not with  _ self-made ARMS. _ Like, how’d you even pull  _ that _ off?!”

“The League has a surprisingly  _ lax _ ruleset when it comes to joining, I guess...” She laughed quietly. “I really just got lucky!”

“Yeah, sure, to  _ some _ degree. I’ll give you that! But you still worked hard to get there. You said you built the ARMS mech  _ because _ you wanted to join the League. right? _ I’d  _ have just straight-up assumed that wasn’t gonna be possible - that it’d be a big unchangeable  _ ‘no’ _ right away - so I wouldn’t have even built the thing  _ at all! _ ”

“...I guess I just don’t have that kinda mindset.” Mechanica blushed, squeezing her fingers on her lap. “I guess it was more thinking, like...  _ “They’ll HAVE to take me if I do this!” _ , so...”

“What if you’d done all that but they’d said no, though?” Min Min asked, genuinely amazed at the girls’ work ethic. “You weren’t worried about that at all?”

She shook her head quickly, hardly needing to think the question over. “I mean I  _ thought _ they’d say no the first time - I was prepared for it! It surprised me when they  _ did _ say yes.”

“Well what would you have done if they’d said no, then...?”

She took a deep inhale, looking around the room as the cogs in her mind worked. “...I’d probably have done a lot of unofficial matches around the country and tried to make more of a name for myself. Try to get some sort of campaign going, y’know? ...I figure if I’d have a good fan base already then they’d possibly give me another shot?”

Min Min grinned, literally flabbergasted. “ _ ...Incredible. _ See, I’d have given up  _ immediately! _ I’d have just gone  _ “Well, I lost!” _ and dropped ARMS fighting altogether.”

She wished she was more like Mechanica, really. It felt weird to somewhat  _ idolize _ someone younger than her, but it was kinda hard not to. She had such a  _ drive _ behind her. Such a strong compulsion to make things happen.

She looked up to her more than the poor girl probably realized...

...Mechanica stayed quiet for a moment, playing with her fingers as she stared at the floor. “...I-I guess I just kinda have this...  _ Thing. _ ”

Min Min cocked her head questioningly, but waited for her to continue.

“...I-It’s a little stupid, I guess-  _ like maybe it might make me seem a bit... Stubborn? _ ” She sighed, not really sure how to put these feelings into words. “...But, well... I guess when I  _ want _ something... I like to pretend it’s  _ going _ to happen? A-And then, when I’ve  **decided** it’s  _ going  _ to happen, it’s just a matter of  **working backwards** , right? L-Like,  _ okay, _ if I’m ‘ _ going _ ’ to be fighting in the ARMS League then  _ how did I get there? _ ” She shrugged. “...And then I can’t really give up, too. Like it’s not  _ possible _ for me to give up because I ‘know’ I’m already going to win, right? And if I end up there eventually then I have to  _ get _ there, o-or it’d be a paradox or something!! ...And so if something doesn’t work out along the way then it just means I have to try something else and  _ that _ will work. Or something else after  _ that. _ And  _ eventually _ I do get there, because...  _ Because I do! _ ”

Min Min nodded slowly,  _ fascinated. _ “So you ‘ _ know _ ’ you’re gonna fight in the League, you think you just need to build the mech first and then it  _ will _ happen, and then if that  _ wasn’t _ enough it didn’t mean you were ‘wrong’ at all, it just means you have more work to do first?” It was a bit of a complex thing to put into words, but she was pretty sure she understood the premise.  _ Decide you’re gonna win. _

“That’s the gist of it, yes... I-I mean I guess my  _ first _ plan was to  _ just get ARMS of my own _ , but that’s harder to will into existence...!” She laughed a bit, then smiled softly back at her. “...I-I know it’s a little silly-”

“I think it’s amazing _ . _ ” She was being completely sincere - it was an incredible outlook on life. One she wished she could follow just as well.  _ Imagine all she could achieve! _

Mechanica looked to the floor again, blushing a bit. She wasn’t used to much appreciation. Especially from someone she looked up to so much. And this way of looking at things wasn’t really something she had  _ told _ someone before -  _ it was pretty personal! _

“...You’ll go far, kid.” She nodded, finally. “Just you watch!”

“W-With  _ some _ luck, yes!” She smiled back, getting to her feet as Min Min began to make way for the door. “And I’ll be seeing  _ you _ at the top!”

“Haha,  _ hell yeah! _ ” Min Min grinned once more. She slipped through the open doorway and gave a small wave to Mechanica with her free hand. “Ribs and I will see you at the League next Wednesday,  _ so look forward to it. _ ”

“I already do -  _ more than anything! _ ” She smiled back - that  _ big, bright _ smile she later became known for by all those with a good enough luck to meet her.

With a quick final wave, Mechanica shut the door and Min Min made her way to her car. She set the shoebox atop the car bonnet and took a moment to enjoy the fresh air. She  _ loved _ weather like this.  _ Sunny summer days. _ The kind that basked  _ everything _ in a blanket of beautiful bright sunlight. It made her feel like the sky really  _ was _ the limit.

...Mechanica’s words mulled over in her head. She didn’t  _ truly _ believe she could just switch to the same line of thinking in one afternoon - she got way too  _ defeatlist  _ when things didn’t go her way, admittedly. But, god,  _ what a way to live! _ No failures, no regrets, no uncertainty. You just  _ decide _ your future and work to make it happen. Never quitting. Never giving up.

_ It was  _ ** _right_ ** _ , wasn’t it? _ I mean, why should  _ anyone _ give up?  ** _Ever?_ ** There just wasn’t a point to it - why would you  _ allow _ the world to beat you without fighting back in every possible way first?! They always say it’s better to go down fighting, after all.

...Min Min would be seeing a lot of Mechanica in the coming weeks. She’d probably become a pretty close friend to her and Ribbon Girl. And, somehow, she got the feeling this wouldn’t be the  _ only _ incredible lesson she’d learn from the kid. She looked like the kinda girl who had a  _ lot _ more wisdom to share. A lot more than you might think, just from looking at her.

With a relaxed sigh, Min Min unlocked her car, brought the shoebox inside, and took one last look at Mechanica’s warehouse. She knew herself well enough to know that Mechanica’s words would  _ probably _ go all but forgotten in the coming days - that’s just how she was, really. Inspired one second, then  _ moved on. _ Bit of a shame, but oh well.

...Maybe,  _ just maybe _ , she’d remember them some time. Right when it really counted.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The jagged nail of a previous victim, now puppeted by the Marionette, sliced its way through Min Min’s skin as it dragged its  _ claw _ atop her breast. Another came to  _ bite _ at her neck, its jaw thankfully weakened with age, but its broken teeth still sharp and cutting all the same. Another gripped its  _ filthy  _ fingers into the rameny strands of her hair. And another fumbled limply around her leg, holding it in place.

...She was about to die. That was it, right? She, and Ninjara, and Coyle and Misango... And Mechanica and, eventually,  _ everyone _ back home -  _ they were all going to die. _ That’s what the Marionette wanted.

And she had agreed to. She had  _ accepted  _ it.

.........

......

...

_ No. _

Min Min focused her remaining strength into her left ARM - the one that had gone numb some time ago.

_ She would  _ ** _not_ ** _ die here today. _

She forced it free from its captors, knocking away the decayed hands that begged for it.

** _She_ ** _ would not die and  _ ** _neither_ ** _ would Ninjara  _ ** _or_ ** _ Coyle  _ ** _or _ ** _ Misango- _

She pointed her fingertips toward the floating corpse of the Marionette, eight glistening white strings still holding it above the ground.

** _And sure as hell not Mechanica._ **

...This was it. After spending  _ all _ day sulking around, feeling  _ scared _ and  _ worried  _ and  _ sick... _ Now she felt  **angry.** Angry that what was  _ supposed _ to be a pleasant trip could be ruined in such a horrific way. Angry for the things she had had to witness and experience this whole dreaded day. Angry that  _ any _ of this happened  _ at all, _ because some unholy  _ shithead _ felt the need to possess some poor woman’s abandoned body.

Light began to flicker around her outstretched hand.

_ But now she had had  _ ** _enough_ ** _ . _ And she was  _ not _ about to give up and let herself die. She was going to  _ choose _ to  _ live. _ She was going to  _ decide _ that she would, and then work backwards to make sure it happened.  _ Just like Mechanica told her to. _

A white form started to brighten into life, starting at her wrist and stretching past her fingertips.

_ She just needed some  _ ** _faith_ ** _ . _ Faith in  _ herself. _ Faith in  _ Mechanica... _ And faith in  _ Misanga. _

‘Mechanica’, pinned back at the side of the cave with her jagged teeth snarling at Coyle mere feet ahead of her, suddenly turned her head toward the ball of light being born across the lair. Her expression fell, as if realizing something was  _ incredibly _ wrong.

Min Min tensed the muscles in her ARM as tight as she could. She felt a heat building up in her from within her chest, and in an instant she forced it leftward and into her ARM.

The pale folds of ramen suddenly flickered into shining emerald _dragon scales,_ starting up at her shoulder and rushing down the length of her ARM_. _Her hand balled into a fist and changed to the very same scaled green a mere moment later.

The white light took shape. Then hardened.

**It was a Dragon.** The long-range ARM she was known for. Her  _ signature _ ARM. The one she had designed herself many years ago. But it was glistening white and completely weightless - a  _ holy _ ARM from a higher power.

The tip of the Dragon began to glimmer and gleam as a bright white ball started to grow beneath its teeth.

Min Min’s mouth curved into a smile as she aimed her fist. “ _ See you in hell...!” _ She gruffed quickly, before suddenly opening her fist in the very same motion she was so familiar with.

The Dragon’s jaw unhinged and blindingly bright light shot out in a thick laser. It blasted out like a shining beacon in an unending stream of glory, smattering the back of the wych elm with a messy burst of heavenly fires.

She had misaimed - the beam was too far left! ... _ But that was fine. _

With one swift swing of her ARM, the beam shined right along the back wall of the cave...  _ Straight through the remaining eight strings. _

A bright white flash cut out through the lair, lasting only for a second but  _ burning _ at eyes like the sun all the same.

...Min Min fell forward, her Dragon disappearing in an instant. She had been fighting the bodies to keep upright, but the moment the strings had split they had all  _ instantly _ lost their grip on her - falling to the floor like the lifeless corpses they were.

She turned quickly to Coyle, who lent herself against the wooden wall of the structure, panting deeply. The ‘Mechanica’ duplicate had fallen dead once more - as had all the other bodies assaulting her. And closer by, Ninjara struggled his way from beneath the pile of bodies that had covered him.

“...D-Did we...?” Min Min looked, a strange unknowing feeling in her stomach. She pressed her hand to her chest, feeling the wet blood that had dribbled from a cut. She could barely feel its sting - still too caught up in the adrenaline - but she could tell it’d begin to hurt later on. Her legs seemed similarly scratched up. Just how injured was she...? And what about Coyle and Ninjara, for that matter? Or Misango, back at the coach?

A roar came from the end of the room and they each turned their heads to it suddenly. It was the fire the Dragon had unleashed -  _ it was moving unnaturally, _ heading  _ down _ toward the remains of the Marionette.

They watched as the fire engulfed its limp body in a seering lightstorm of a blast. The fire grew quickly,  _ blindingly _ bright, and then diminished back to how it had been before. Then, after a moment, the fire turned to a natural orange colour.

“ _ I-I think that’s it!! _ ” Coyle stammered, having watched the body - its  _ only _ tie to this world - shredded into ash. “I-I think we did it,  _ I think it’s gone! _ ”

They looked at each other in disbelief, then shared a relieved smile suddenly... Before quickly turning back to the orange glow starting to  _ grow _ nearby.

“Oh  _ shit! _ ” Min Min gulped. “Th-This thing is made of  _ wood! _ ”

The fire quickly engulfed the entire side of the elm where the Marionette had been. And it continued to spread further. The searing heat felt blistering from even a fair distance away -  _ and it was still growing. _

“ _ Don’t just stand there! _ ” Coyle yelped, making way for the exit. Min Min and Ninjara followed quickly in turn.

...The fire was catching up with them. They had to stumble over bodies - their own legs weakened, aching and cut up.

Ninjara took a deep breath, jumped at Coyle, and nabbed her by the collar. He gripped it tightly and yanked her toward Min Min - enough to get her within ARM’s reach as well. Then, in a quick cloud of smoke, he poofed the lot of them out of the elm.

They rolled across the damp wet floor of the forest, mere feet from growing fire beside them. They carefully sat up and looked at it as rain poured down from the gap in the trees above.

“ _ ..:Let’s get the hell out of Redwood. _ ” Coyle spat, hurrying to her feet, shortly followed by the others. Part of them wanted to rest now - now that they were  _ finally _ free from it. But that’d be  _ wrong. _ They weren’t truly ‘out’ until they’d left Redwood as a forgotten blip on the horizon.

They dashed quickly in one direction, believing again that they would find their way out of the forest. The rain was  _ really _ coming down hard, but it felt clean.  _ Freeing _ . Like it was washing them of all the horror they had just been subject to.

They left the forest for what would  _ thankfully _ be the final time, hurried past the shining lake, and over to the remains of the coach, which was now similarly on fire - at some point the damaged engine must have ignited...

To their relief, Misango stood there to greet them -  _ Mechanica safely sleeping in his ARMS _ , and a limp Springtron lying motionlessly on the floor.

“ _ W-We did it. _ ” Coyle stammered to him, quickly putting two fingers to Mechanica’s neck to check for a pulse. “ _ I-Is she? _ ”

“ _ She’ll be fine. _ ” He nodded, a smile on his face, though he was considerably bruised and cut up.

“ _ THEN LET’S GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE! _ ” Ninjara cheered excitedly, a bright smile on his face.

They abandoned the coach, their luggage, and Redwood as a whole and hurried down the street they had arrived on.

They ran through the rain like it was the first rain they’d felt in years - non-stop, despite the incredible over exhaustion and physical injury they had sustained over the course of the day. All in all they had run for a solid forty minutes, non-stop, through the wind and the night and the rain, until finally arriving at the nearest form of society -  _ a nearby gas station. _

Coyle barged in first, grabbed the surprised gas station cashier by the neck, and slammed him against the counter -  _ knocking him out cold. _ She then jumped over the counter top and picked up the phone.

Min Min sat herself on the floor and put her head in her hands. Was this it? Were they finally  _ out? _

Ninjara grabbed a massive bag of potato chips from the nearby display and opened them, his appetite having returned full force.

...And Misango waited patiently by the counter for Coyle, with Mechanica resting quitely in his ARMS.

The call finally connected. A chipper voice came from the other end. “You’ve reached the ARMS Lab, please-”

“ **GET OVER HERE, ** ** _NOW._ ** ”


	16. Epilogue

Coyle adjusted her back on the rather narrow skateboard she lay on. Why was this _ still _ something she relied on when she needed to get under things?! Why didn’t she bother to just hoist the damn thing up on some sort of rig, so she wouldn’t have to squeeze underneath it?

...Maybe it’d be a good idea for a short break. A short break and a quick side project - a _ replacement _ skateboard. One that’s wider. More _ padded. _ More ideal for the purpose she used it for, seeing as her skateboarding days were _ well _ behind her.

Then again, maybe a side project _ wasn’t _ such a good idea. They had a habit of growing into _ vastly _ bigger plans, which led to more and more projects left on the backburner behind her... Even _ this _ was intended to be a ‘small’ side project. She’d meant to be finishing up her new Hedlok design, yet here she was engineering a new _ miniature jet engine. _ And it was barely _ miniature _ at this point now, too.

“_ Coffee! _” Came a sweet voice from the other end of the room.

_ Ah! _ The perfect thing to ease her sorrows. Sounded like literal _ heaven _ at this point. “I’ll pick it up in a moment, then. _ Thank you. _”

“I-I’ll just set it down here...” The voice quietly added as light footsteps tapped toward the nearby desk.

Coyle paused, frozen under the engine for a good moment. She then slowly wheeled herself back out from under it, only to catch her coffee attendant already halfway out the door. _ “Mechanica. _”

...She froze, her back turned to Coyle and her shoulders raised with tension.

“_ We’ve talked about this. _”

She turned around slowly, a sad pout on her face. “_ It wasn’t heavy... _”

“Mechanica...” Coyle signed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“It was a _ short _ distance! And it’s a _ light _ cup!”

“_ It’s ceramic and liquid, it’s _ ** _not_ ** _ paper! _ ” She huffed. “You’re on a _ strict _ rule set of what you can and cannot do and I’ve _ told _ you that if you can’t stick to it I’ll suspend you from your duties.”

“_ Noooo... _ ” She whined sadly. “I _ want _ to help!”

“Then you help by _ talking _ and _ reading! _ And you direct _ Springtron _ if you need anything lifted, it’s _ not _ that restrictive of a rule!”

“My arms are _ fineeee. _ ” She whined some more. “I can _ lift _ them almost all the way up and I can _ move _ them pretty much as quick as I want to!”

“That doesn’t mean they’re-”

“_ And _ Dr. Neil says I’m healing faster than expected!”

“Yeah, well,” Coyle sighed, getting to her feet. “_ Dr. Neil is an alcoholic. _ So how can he look after you right when he can’t even look after himself, eh?” She took the coffee and had a sip. She might be upset at Mechanica’s rule breaking, but at least the coffee was _ damn _ good.

Mechanica continued to pout, tapping her foot against the floor mindlessly. “...I wouldn’t even _ have _ to spend months healing if I just woke up with ARMS...”

“Mechanica, don’t say that.” Coyle sighed sadly. “You’re not _ lesser _ for not having ARMS...” That had always been a bit of a hard message to get through to her, but nowadays it carried more of a _ sting _ whenever Coyle felt she had to say those words.

“I know, I know...” She pouted again - _ really _ getting some mileage out of pouting lately. “But you’re still sticking to your _ promise, _ right?”

Coyle smiled. “_ I am. _ ” She had told Mechanica, just after she had awoken in the hospital after her ‘fall’, that the moment she was _ diagnosably _ healthy again she’d allow her to try out some of her own ARMS with her mech. The Burrchuk. The Parabola. _ Even the Lokjaw. _

Her sad pout formed slowly in a small smile. She _ knew _ she was getting better day by day, even if it was a total drag to have to wait for so long. “ _ Okay, _ well, i’m holding you to it!! ...I guess I’ll go have Springtron play my _ Animal Crossing _ for me. _ Since I can’t hold a stupid Joy-Con yet... _”

Coyle cracked a smile back at her. “I’m sure he’s been enjoying it a lot! _ Great _ bonding experience for you two.”

Mechanica gave a long, drawn-out sigh. “He’s sooooo baddddd at catching fishhhhhh...! How’s a _ robot _ got such bad timing?!” She dramatically slumped each step on her way out the door.

“_ ...Hey. _ ” Coyle called out once more, feeling that familiar _ sadness _ well up in her again.

Mechanica poked her head back through the open door way, an inquisitive look on her face.

“...Glad to have you back.”

She gave a soft smile again, then disappeared out of sight once more.

Mechanica had been back for about a month now, yet she found herself telling her take damn near daily at this point. She figured she wouldn’t _ really _ be able to move past it all until Mechanica was fully better again, which made sense, but it still played on her heart day-in day-out to feel like this. _ How exhausting. _

She took another sip from her coffee and savoured it. She should _ probably _ get back under the engine and continue tinkering at it... As much as a hassle that was.

But before she could, _ a knock came to the door. _

“Yeah, yeah, whatcha want?” She rolled her eyes, already knowing it wouldn’t be anyone she actually _ liked. _

Dr. Hensen - one of her lower level grunts, even - quietly slipped into the room. “A-Ah, yes, _ h-hello _ma’am-”

“_ Spit it out already, I don’t have all day. _” She glared.

“W-Well, it’s just... _ Th-There’s someone here to see you. _ They’ve been hanging around the car park out front, a-and-”

“_ Sic Helix on ‘em. _ ” She shrugged, bringing her mug to her lips once more. “That’s hardly something you needed to come to _ me _ for...” She rolled her eyes again.

“W-Well, it’s just... _ She’s mentioned Redwood, ma’am. _ ” He gulped, nervous. “ _ Says she lived there. _”

Coyle paused, her mug pressed to her lower lip, just short of taking another sip. She slowly brought it down. “_ ...What did she look like? _”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, well, well...” Coyle began, stepping out into the chilly parking lot ahead of the ARMS Lab. ”_ Really _ didn’t think I’d be seeing _ you _ again. _ And I quite liked that. _” She frowned.

Before her, wrapped in a thick pink coat to help keep the cold out, but with hands still _ unmistakably _ of the same colourful woven ARMS she had so proudly displayed before... Stood _ Alice. _ Redwood’s innocent little hotel receptionist.

“_ ...Well? _” Coyle pressed impatiently at the girl staring wide-eyed at her.

“S-Sorry, yes, h... h-hi...” She gulped nervously, her breath visible in the chilly morning air. “I-I’m sorry to turn up out of the blue like this... Y-You do remember me, yes?”

“_ Somehow. _ ” She shrugged back, a light glare in her eyes. “ _ How’s the leg? _”

She frowned softly, looking down at the leg Coyle had _ seared. _ “...Not great...”

“_ Good. _” Coyle uncaringly threw back.

Alice cleared her throat with an unease. “A-Anyway, I... S-Sorry, I’m just still so surprised you’re _ alive...! _”

Coyle raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?_ We set your forest on fire. _ You really thought your _ big bad monster _ survived that?”

“I guess I’ve not really known _ what _ to think...” She sighed. The whole town had seen the fire before long. No one really knew what to make of it - especially as it started during heavy rainfall - but as Alice _ knew _ of the gang’s plan to venture in there... Well, it just seemed more likely that _ it _ had gotten _ them _ with that fire. Not the other way round! “...It’s been a _ very _ long six months. I-I mean, _ Redwood isn’t even _ ** _around_ ** _ anymore! _”

“Mm. That was _ me. _ ” Coyle smiled slyly. “ _ Made a few phone calls. _ What happened from _ your _ perspective? Can’t say I’ve not been curious. They only told me so much.”

“Well... A day or two after I last saw you the whole town got raided by _ police. _ L-Like _ serious _ police, y’know? The kind with lots of armour and very loud voices...” She shrugged slowly. “They took everyone away separately, asked a whole lot of questions, and the next thing I know they send me to live somewhere else... Only a couple other people from Redwood moved in near me, s-so I don’t even _ know _ what happened to everyone else...” She frowned. She had liked her neighbours, despite the secret they all shared. It wasn’t hard to assume that a lot of them were serving jail time now - a handful must have known more than she ever had, right? And some were likely _ involved _ in instigating some of the disappearances... “...They told me Redwood got torn down over the next couple months or so. The hotel, the houses, the shops... _ All gone. _”

“They’re paving the area and making a _ mall, _ from what I’ve heard!” Coyle grinned, pleased with herself. “ _ Incredible _ what you can do when you run the most name-worthy Lab on the planet, have previously been married to the _ former _ ARMS League Champion, and are in talks with the _ current _ ARMS League Champion...” She shrugged. “ _ Redwood never stood a chance. _ And I _ seriously _ hope you didn’t come here looking for _ sympathy. _ Because I have _ none _to give.”

She shook her head quickly. “I-I’m glad it’s gone... R-Really! It’s been a burden lifted for my shoulders. I feel like I can sleep easier at night...” She gulped. “...B-But I was always wondering about _ you guys. _ It took me _ ages _ to find out you ran the ARMS Lab, a-and I really didn’t know _ anything _ about the ARMS League until recently s-so...” She paused, then sighed meekly. “...I wasn’t sure if you’d all survived o-or...”

“Who do you think sent SWAT into Redwood?” Coyle raised.

“W-Well you might have made that call _ before _ you went into the forest, I mean.” She frowned. “...S-So you made it, clearly, b-but did your _ friends? _ Th-The girl with the hat? And the green guy and the strong one... A-and the one who’d gone missing - _ the little girl, _ did she-”

“_ She’s recovering. _ ” Coyle nodded, still beyond thankful for that. “We couldn’t tell her what had all happened, of course. As far as _ she’s _ concerned, she fell down the stairs while sneaking down to the pool in the middle of the night.”

...The lie had never fully sat right with Mechanica - _ why _ would she be so eager to go swimming at the hotel, one mere night from _ Fontaine Plas? _ And wasn’t she _ exhausted _ from being up late the day before? Plus, it wasn’t even in her _ nature _ to want to sneak into a hotel pool in a strange unfamiliar town, out of open hours, and totally _ alone. _ But for as stupid as the lie made her feel, it was a whole lot better than sharing with her the horrifying _ truth. _ Letting her know that she was _ targeted. _ Maybe one day they’d tell her the truth... But they had little plan to do so any time soon.

“The others have more or less healed from their injuries and they’ve been attending the therapy I’ve set them on. _ Go figure _ Misango’s taken it all like a champ - _ it barely seemed to affect him at all. _ I guess he was made for that kinda stuff... But Min Min and Ninjara are still prone to random bouts of crying, panic attacks, sleepless nights... It _ really _ fucked them up.” Both had left ARMS League fighting for _ months _ after the ordeal, but Ninjara had been back for a couple weeks now, and Min Min seemed to be considering a return of her own. _ Recovery. _ Slow, as expected, but they _ were _ recovering.

Alice nodded slowly, an apologetic look on her face. “...A-And you...?”

“_ I’m fine. _ ” She glared. “I’m _ always _ fine.”

...She was decidedly _ not _ , though. It was a lot easier for her to hide it from everyone else, given how often she secluded herself anyway, but she was just as prone to the same issues Min Min and Ninjara faced as they were. _ Thankfully _she had used her connections to set up a private consultation with an old friend with all the right degrees, so she too was getting the help she needed - even if she didn’t want anyone else to know, for whatever pointless appearance of ‘strength’ she wanted to maintain among her peers. 

Alice gave a very small smile - meek and apologetic, as was quite her nature it seemed. Part of her wanted to ask what happened in the forest that night. _ Everyone _ could see the smoke rising, or even the sharp orange light at the center of it all, but _ exactly _ what was happening was a complete mystery. But some things, she figured, were better off not known. _ Better left in the past. _ “...Th-Thank you for giving me some, um... _ Closure. _ I’m glad none of you got lost along the way, a-and... And I’m glad _ someone _ did _ something. _”

Coyle shrugged. “_ Go home. Move on. _”

She nodded, something of a respectful smile on her face. “I will... _ Th-Thank you. _”

The two turned in separate directions. For as uninterested as Coyle may have _ intentionally _ seemed, she was happy to have some closure too. Alice _ had _ arguably been one of the only ‘nice’ people in Redwood, after all. Despite what she _ allowed _ to happen. It was nice to see she was doing alright for herself, free from Redwood’s strangle.

She opened the mailbox on the way back in, figuring it’d save Mechanica straining her arms again with a package because “_ It was just a small package!! _ ”. But all it wound up being was a single envelope... _ From the ARMS League _, apparently?

She shut the door behind her and ran her thumb under its lip.

_ Dear ARMS League Fighter! _

_ With our new rocky-mountain arena, _ ** _Mount Miracle_ ** _ , opening later this month, we’d like to offer you all a chance to drive up this coming weekend for an early look around at all the wonderful- _

Coyle tore the letter in two without reading even a single word further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it sure has been a ride! Seven and a half months later... _H-Happy Halloween, everyone!!_ ;w;
> 
> Iffff you'd like to give me your thoughts on this story or any others I have written (please do!! I crave validation!!) then please do leave a comment _or_ check out my new Discord server linked belowwww!~
> 
> I'll be back with another fic before TOO long, hopefully... One that's a whole lot shorter, simpler, and _kinder_, I think!

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to talk about ARMS fanon and headcanons with other fans, share and review fan art and fan fiction, and just generally have fun with ARMS world building then consider checking out my ARMS fanon discord server!!  
https://discord.gg/TsaFTSq


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